Courage to Care — Christie Patient

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where my mom, Holly, received her double-lung transplant, has gone to great lengths to provide information at every turn on the transplant journey. The infamous blue binder contains everything you…

Receiving a pulmonary fibrosis diagnosis is a life-changing event. Accepting this new reality may initially seem impossible. There are so many new things to consider that never were on the radar before they suddenly became important.

I’ve been going through a second (Third? Fourth?) wave of grief for all things pre-pandemic. I am still mourning things that once brought me joy but are currently off-limits — rugby, concerts, being a wedding photographer, and…

Two weeks after my mom, Holly’s, double-lung transplant, she was discharged from the hospital. Although she was weak, she was walking, talking, eating, and, best of all, breathing on her own. After three…

The correct way to talk about lung transplantation in relation to pulmonary fibrosis is to call it a “treatment.” I learned this early in my caregiving journey through a combination of education from my mom’s…

As I sat in my mom’s hospital room on the day of her long-awaited discharge, I felt like we were bringing home a very fragile adult baby. Her body had been through a series of assaults starting with…

There is a phenomenon in psychology known as “lost possible selves.” Possible selves are the heroes in our life story that we create within our inner narrative. They are made from goals and wants, fears and risks.

A Yiddish proverb states, “When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.” This is true when giving gifts of time, energy, and love, as in…

When I recall the times that loved ones were in the hospital for extended periods, I can still feel the energy of the waiting rooms. ICU waiting rooms have a particular hum about them, a palpable tension…

Last week was Global Tracheostomy Tube Awareness Week. The mother of a child with complex health challenges started it. Her goals were to educate people and normalize her daughter’s trach. While Trach Week focuses on the use of a…

Dear Christie,   It’s 10 p.m., Dec. 26th, 2018. You just got this crazy phone call from Mom. She told you that her disease — which you still don’t know the name…

Last weekend, my column turned 1! There were only a few weeks in the past year that I did not write a post for Pulmonary Fibrosis News. This means that I have had about 50 opportunities to…