Columns

A few weeks ago, my co-workers and I had a candid discussion about the things that tick us off. I work with a large team of patient and caregiver columnists from this site’s parent company, and we share many similar experiences and mindsets. Our monthly community calls over…

I’m listening to my caregiver’s daughter talk about life as a first grader when I realize … I’m old. I don’t know when it happened. One minute, I was graduating high school, and the next I was turning 30. The thought is terrifying. Where did all that time…

There’s a memory that has sat quietly in the back of my mind for a while. After it happened, I wanted to write about the rawness and reality of how I felt in the moment. Yet, a gut feeling told me otherwise. The story wasn’t finished yet. There was…

I’ve written a lot about the support I’ve received from nurses and others. Although I always recognize the people in my life one way or another, I have yet to celebrate plenty of people, both medical professionals and nonmedical ones, through my columns. Everybody I know has gotten…

Respiratory ailments never bothered my husband, Randy, or me in Fort Worth, Texas, where we grew up. Columbia, South Carolina, our destination in 1985, was wretchedly muggy but didn’t prompt any allergy issues, either. In the early 1990s, we moved to Lenoir, North Carolina, where furniture factories thrived. That…

Peeking up from my pillow and seeing that it was 4:55 a.m. was an unpleasant surprise the other day. I had slept only a whopping 20 minutes longer than the night before, and it was becoming a pattern. Having fallen asleep around midnight, my body was riddled with exhaustion,…

My medical journey began with challenges but has evolved into a story of resilience and hope. Born on a sweltering August day in New York, I arrived as a gift to my mother, resembling her in several ways, including as a fellow Leo. The first six months of my…

“Sherry, did you forget about your evening medication yesterday?” my caregiver asked as she held up a plastic bag with a vitamin pill and painkillers. It was Feb. 17, the day after I attended an Ed Sheeran concert with my brother Gabriel. In response, my faced looked like…

“We have to, Kevin.” That’s the text my caregiver, Christian, sent me several months ago when he found out that “Star Wars” actor Hayden Christensen would soon be attending a pop culture convention in Washington, D.C. We immediately agreed that we had to go. Logistics of my…

Every once in a while, I’m seized with unbearable jealousy. That’s not true. It isn’t jealousy so much as a sense of falling behind. Social media, while great for some things, is horrid when it comes to self-comparison. Every day, we come face to face with the many…