Columns

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…

Last week began like any other. I usually play catch-up on Monday, my favorite day of the week. It gives me a chance to recover from the weekend, which generally involves seeing people outside of our home, something I find to be draining. As I settled…

I complete many jigsaw puzzles as I rest in my recliner. I find puzzles to be an excellent way to pass the time and keep my mind occupied. I do my jigsaw puzzles online, and I enjoy being able to “pack them away” every night, rather than leaving…

I like to read online about how other patients experience systemic scleroderma, especially when I encounter unusual symptoms that don’t seem to have any relevance to the disease. So far, I have amassed a small collection of minor, but annoying and somewhat peculiar, ailments that puzzle…