Columns

I used to save my empty pill bottles, thinking a Pinterest craft would catch my eye and I would have a good use for my vast collection of rusty-colored medicine containers. Instead, my stockpile grew so rapidly I had no choice but to give in and trash them. Unless I…

The phone rang on a Friday night. I answered it thinking the call probably was from another annoying solicitor. Instead, it was the voice of the person who would introduce me to my disorder. The nurse told that me my tests had come in, and I had scleroderma. Finding answers…

In my mom’s life, I am more than a caregiver. I became one at a time when she needed me the most. It was a role I willingly stepped into but never understood fully. Being her eldest daughter can be tough, and what mother-daughter relationship isn’t? By nature, it was…

Coming home from the hospital should be a time of smiles and celebration — especially after surviving multiple strokes and spending nearly a week in the ICU, as I recently did. But isn’t life always more complicated than we expect? The fact that I’m alive is remarkable. And having…

Who am I? On some days, I don’t know how to answer that question. But I can tell you with certainty that I am not defined by my autoimmune disease. Scleroderma, my systemic enemy, is trying to destroy me. Every day it does its best to damage my…

It’s challenging to inherit the mother’s role. Some moms fade in involvement as parents while others see their children well into their adulthood and continue to act as mothers till they go to glory. Across that spectrum are mothers failing, struggling, hurting on their own. My mother is an interesting…

My cardiologist has given me the OK to go back to the gym. I’ve been waiting for his clearance for a long time. Working out at the gym was how I stayed healthy and in shape before being diagnosed with scleroderma. Since becoming ill, I…

It has been a long few weeks of dealing with recurrent benign paroxysmal positional vertigo while trying to maintain some sense of routine in between my need for sleep. While confined to bed, I’ve watched a lot of Netflix: mostly television series from decades ago…

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks.   I am currently dealing with several crises at the same time, all of which include seriously unwell significant others. My mother has been making an excellent recovery, but unfortunately, other people in my life have been facing life-changing…

In my last column, I promised to share my experience with a new cardiologist, as well as his ideas about the likely cause of my heart issues. I had been trying to find out why my heart goes into tachycardia, particularly when I attempt…