Columns

My mother passed away in the final hours of Thanksgiving Day three years ago. Just a week before that, I lost my stepsister, too. Understandably, it was a time of deep loss for me. At the time, COVID-19 was spreading at an alarming rate, so, like many others, I…

Grief is one of the more complex emotions we experience. In my practice as a therapist, I regularly support people who are grieving, and I have a variety of therapeutic ways to respond to someone who is processing loss. The most common strategy is to validate grief’s myriad effects on…

Veterans Day is approaching on Nov. 11, and most of us know someone who served in the military. For this column, I’d like to honor someone who left behind some promising words of the highest degree. During a recent conversation, the person I was chatting with brought up my…

Early last week, the temperature here at Lake Anna, Virginia, was in the mid-80s, which was uncharacteristic for an October afternoon. By the end of the week, the highs were barely above 50 F, and frost would greet the morning sun. I started each day with a sense of awe…

Today is traditionally a day for trick-or-treating, haunted houses, pumpkin patches, hay rides, and of course, pumpkin “chunkin’”. I have always enjoyed Halloween, the scariest day of the year for many. I mentioned last week that my wife, Susan, and I host a Halloween costume party each year. Costumed partygoers and…

The pulmonary fibrosis (PF) community is not a stranger to stress. Regardless of your role, whether as a patient, caregiver, or transplant recipient, you’ve likely experienced it. The stress could be white coat syndrome or come from a test, procedure, or the many unknowns associated with living…

Living with a chronic illness like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a multifaceted endeavor. It’s hard to fully describe just how many aspects of life the disease affects. Despite writing about it for seven years, there’s always something new I want to share with this community, because…

Have you ever had the nagging feeling that a gray cloud was hanging over your head? For the past three years and 10 months, I’ve felt such a cloud. It comes from being labeled and stigmatized for my disability. Stigma can be described as a deeply discrediting attribute that…

In a single month, I’ve had three vaccinations, three medical procedures requiring anesthesia, two lab tests, one dental appointment, one pentamidine treatment, one appointment at the pulmonary clinic, and one pulmonary function test. As I’ve noted before, life after lung transplant is busy with medical surveillance. I…

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…