How was Stonehenge constructed some 5,500 years ago? How were the stones moved, and who moved them? Why were the monolithic statues erected on Easter Island? Do questions like these weigh on you? I enjoy a good mystery, and my journey with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) has all the…
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Note: This column describes the author’s own experiences with Protonix (pantoprazole), Prograf (tacrolimus), Rapamune (sirolimus), and Forteo (teriparatide injection). Not everyone will have the same response to treatment. Consult your doctor before starting or stopping a therapy. Pulmonary fibrosis patients, no matter where they are in their journey, require…
Years before my husband, Donnie, first began having breathing troubles, he suffered from stiff, achy muscles and exhaustion. Each night, he’d come home from work exhausted, sore, and discouraged by the pain his body was experiencing. At first, he attributed his discomfort to residual soreness from working in a high-paced…
I’ve been writing recently about the four pillars of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation’s (PFF) new five-year strategic plan introduced last year, called “The PFF Is ME.” In December, I explained the first pillar, Accelerate Research. The second pillar, Expand Access to Expert Care, is a concern for…
Artificial intelligence (AI) touches many aspects of both our professional and personal lives. One of the earliest recognitions of AI dates back more than 75 years to when Alan Turing, an English mathematician and computer scientist, pondered the question, “Can machines think?” Today, the answer seems closer to…
On New Year’s Day, my daughters and I created vision boards for 2026. If you haven’t made one before, a vision board is a collage of images, quotes, and art that captures your goals and intentions for the year. We spent about an hour cutting pictures from old magazines and…
If you’re a regular reader of my column, you’ve likely heard me say before that transplant patients commit to a lifetime of medical surveillance. I was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) on the last day of January in 2017. Until then, I didn’t see my primary care…
Over the holidays, for the first time in a long while, my home was full of voices, laughter, movement, and the comfort of family. I hosted the gathering, something I hadn’t been able to do in years. For someone like me living with pulmonary fibrosis, hosting a holiday party…
When I was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in the early days of 2017, it seemed like my world moved in slow motion. Just a few months earlier, as my diagnostic journey began in the fall of 2016, my doctors sensed something was wrong, but no one could…
I had the opportunity to get away for a couple of days recently and went to the shore. As I looked out at the vastness of the ocean in the late afternoon sunlight, it occurred to me that this is what pulmonary fibrosis (PF) researchers face every day —…
