If your ankles — or those of someone you love — look like this, please read this!

As a 'recovering' nurse, my first reaction to this photo was "Yikes!" This woman is only 67, and both her heart and kidneys are in big trouble. Dr. Mary Braun Bates explains why beautifully.

Mary Braun Bates, MD—who writes as Doctoring Unpacked—is an internal medicine physician currently living in New Hampshire. She’s been a primary care physician in both urban and rural settings, as well as with palliative and hospice care. IMO, the latter two root you quickly in reality, not some imagined ideal patient environment where you simply write a…