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Have you ever had one of those days? You know, the kind where nothing seems to go right, where a dozen things have gone wrong before you’ve even left the house? OK, technically, I did leave my apartment, and came back, and left again, and came back again. And that…

When I learned that an upcoming episode of the “AiArthritis Voices 360 Talk Show” would focus on the difficulty patients have in getting diagnosed, I jumped at the chance to co-host. After all, it took me eight years to get my sarcoidosis diagnosis, starting from when I began…

How do I know that my hip is getting better? My back is hurting more. I know that sounds like a bad joke, but it really falls into the category of “funny ’cause it’s true.” It’s not actually funny, but laughter is a great coping mechanism. Sometimes I can’t tell…

One of my wife’s friends recently invited us to a party. It happened to be our anniversary weekend and we didn’t have any plans, so we decided to make it a date. It was a great opportunity to hang out with some nice folks. After arriving, I overheard a few…

When living with a chronic health condition, challenges often seem to appear out of nowhere. After I was diagnosed with pulmonary sarcoidosis, I continued to do anything and everything I wanted to do. I rarely considered how my health might dictate my actions and abilities. Call it…

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” — Anonymous Every other week before I meet with my therapist, I take stock of where my head is at: what I’m thinking most about, what’s stressing me…

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — tennis champion Arthur Ashe Six years ago, my life changed. That’s when I experienced my first spontaneous pneumothorax, or a sudden collapsed lung. The year before, I’d been laid off from my job. I spent that…

“Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.” — New York Yankees Hall of Famer Yogi Berra It seems we’re never going to make it to a post-COVID world. It’s never going to be gone — or if it is, other variants or viruses will likely take its place.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” — Albert Einstein I was diagnosed with pulmonary sarcoidosis a year after my mother passed away. That was over 20 years ago. Afterward, I didn’t give a lot of critical thought to living…

I recently saw a post on social media that stated, “I’m a person who wants to do a lot of things trapped in a body that doesn’t.”  I felt this sentiment deeply; it was a perfect description of my life with sarcoidosis. I’ve always been someone who wants to…