It’s hard to believe that the holiday season is here, and Christmas is less than two weeks away. Although many family and holiday traditions will likely resume thanks to COVID-19 vaccinations, it’s still surreal to think that this is our second time celebrating the holidays amid a pandemic. In…
My pulmonologists are talented jugglers. They must determine my medication dosages, keep my lab results within the standard ranges, and minimize medication side effects. After my bilateral lung transplant in August 2020, it took a year to find the correct balance between all three. Medication baseline The balancing act started…
Welcome to my new column, “Make Every Breath Count.” Before I started writing it, I thought about what readers might want to know about me and why I’m writing this column. What details would make them want to continue reading? It all started with a cough. In the fall of…
The holidays can be a time of joy and celebration, magic and wonder, traditions and new beginnings — but also grief and pain. These things can exist all at once, but it can be hard to admit that you’re feeling heavy when you’re expected to be light and…
Most of us crave intimacy. Not only on a physical level, but more importantly on an emotional, intellectual, experiential, and spiritual level. I am a very emotional person; it’s easy to see in my writing. I wear my heart on my sleeve. My mother always said I was the…
The holidays are complicated. And getting in the holiday spirit with a chronic illness, in the dead of winter, in the middle of a pandemic, can be, well, challenging. If you are struggling to feel the magic this season, that’s OK. If you’re too exhausted or too sad to…
A doctor once told me he wasn’t sure I’d survive until my 30th birthday. If I did, I’d likely be dependent on supplemental oxygen, unlike any other young adult I knew at the time. This week, I turned 34. Reflecting on my nearly six years with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)…
Being my own advocate means having to be resilient, a trait I have come to acquire. The past two weeks have really tested me, and sparked a fierce determination on my part to obtain financial assistance to help offset expenses caused by my illness. I have been researching…
The pressure we put on ourselves to live full, “successful” lives can be debilitating. Transplant recipients can be burdened with extremely high expectations for what post-transplant life should look like. Organ transplantation is an incredible gift, but those expectations can cause a lot of emotional stress and guilt. Before I…
I never understood the relationship between the heart and lungs before I was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in 2016. As if learning my lungs would fail from this condition wasn’t hard enough to accept, I was also assigned a cardiologist to monitor my heart health, which is often…
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