Christie Patient is a life-long explorer of the Wild West. She now resides in the Hawaiian Islands with her husband, Jonny and their two four-legged friends. Christie is a full-time freelancer, nature lover, and business owner. She took a break from work in 2019 to care for her mother, Holly before and after her double-lung transplant. Christie’s column documents the experience of her mother’s IPF progression, months-long hospitalization at UC San Francisco, and life-saving transplant. She hopes that her family’s transplant story can provide a unique perspective for other IPF patients and family members.
As patients, it’s crucial to know our bodies and the care they need. Understanding the complex ways that a chronic condition like pulmonary fibrosis may affect us over time, as well as the options available to treat and manage symptoms, is important for long-term quality of life.
Amy Silverstein’s second memoir, “My Glory Was I Had Such Friends” (2017), left a lasting impression on me. It wasn’t just because of the way Silverstein’s devoted friends attended to her while she awaited a second heart transplant, or even how that story mirrored…
In May, my mom, Holly, told me about a memoir she’d just finished reading by Amy Silverstein, a writer who had died of cancer the previous day. Silverstein attributed her impending death to a 35-year reliance on transplant-related medications following a heart transplant at age 25 and…
Last April, COVID-19 took up residence in our house again — or so we thought. My husband, Jonny, had a raging set of symptoms, and I had a sore throat. Our at-home tests gave mixed results. After a week of quarantining, our PCR tests came back negative. Negative?…
This week, while my husband, Jonny, and I sat at home in isolation after our tests for COVID-19 were positive, I struggled to feel joy. My friend sent me a video of someone singing a popular emo anthem while holding a wet strawberry — its soggy leaves pasted to…
Good morning, readers. If it’s not morning when you’re reading this, let’s pretend for a moment that it is. You just rolled out of bed, made a hot, caffeinated beverage, and now you’re checking on the latest from Pulmonary Fibrosis News. Cozy. Now, raise your hand if you got…
Whenever my family visits my husband and me here in Hawaii, I can’t help but reflect on my first trip to the islands right before my mom, Holly, was hospitalized for an acute exacerbation of her idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). That 2018 visit was our first real family vacation…
Unlike members of the band Green Day, I could happily live through an entire year of Septembers. Januarys though? Wake me up when that ends. I always find myself exhausted and burnt out this time of year. I used to chalk it up to seasonal depression, but it’s…
For all the time I’ve spent in my 31 years “sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death,” as Moaning Myrtle from the “Harry Potter” series says, facing the loss of a loved one hasn’t gotten any easier. In spite of all my pondering, reading, and writing on the subject of…
Greetings from Griefville. This column comes in three parts. Part 1: Grief is the worst Five years ago, I lost my cousin Charlie to lung cancer. He went to the emergency room with what he thought was pneumonia, and six weeks later, he was gone. It was a cold, dark…
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