Erin Yanish

“When you can turn your passion into your work — that is success.”

Erin Yanish, who works on her family’s farm in Litchfield, believes this. Erin is in her early 30s and passionate about using organic and sustainability practices to raise produce, chickens and beef cattle.

For the past three years, Erin has spent three days a week in dialysis with failing kidneys. After struggling with pain and nausea, Erin was referred to Merryn R. Jolkovsky, MD, with the St. Cloud Hospital Palliative Care program. Palliative care specializes in the relief of pain, symptoms and stress of serious illness. Patients gain the strength to carry on with daily life and tolerate medical treatments.

“Merryn is very good at evaluating the patient’s needs,” Erin said. “Dr. Jolkovsky and her staff took the time to get to know me and who I am. She really listened to me and personalized my care, helping me to feel better and able to go back to a more active lifestyle.” Through Dr. Jolkovsky’s guidance, many medications were eliminated and emergency room visits decreased. “Merryn explained what side effects I could expect from medications and helped me work through them until the symptoms were gone.”