No Tears for Sarcoidosis
— Charlton Harris

Two years ago this week, I was in the hospital suffering from crepitus. I didn’t immediately know how serious the condition was, but it soon caused me to be intubated in the hospital’s ICU. The same hospital…

This week, my wife and I will be celebrating our 22nd wedding anniversary. As only a wife can document such an occasion, we’ve been together for 35 years total. Our son asked me how it feels. I told him I’ll let him know when the…

A few months ago I had a conversation with someone who told me he was recently released from the hospital after having triple bypass surgery. I mentioned that my mom had a heart valve replacement a few years before she passed. I also told him about my…

I accomplished a few things that I’m proud of this past week. I finally finished one of my online nutrition courses, and I finally got my ice cream cake. The biggest and most important accomplishment is that I celebrated my 56th birthday. As the days quickly approached I…

Father’s Day was always a good time for my family when I was growing up. My brother and I were raised by a single mother, but my maternal grandfather and uncle were role models. We come from a large family, so we always had my…

Recently, I thought about my past hospitalizations and how isolated I felt. I guess the events over the past three months with social distancing had me feeling isolated … again. I thought about the two months I spent in the lung center at one of our hospitals in…

You are where you’re supposed to be — for now. Over the past three years, I’ve been dealing with the effects of pulmonary sarcoidosis. Having suffered multiple spontaneous pneumothoraces over a two-year period, I often wonder…

I once heard an old man say that “a changed mind is a dangerous thing.” In the summer of 2017, I spent two months in the hospital due to spontaneous pneumothorax. My lungs are in pretty bad shape because…

Every day is a new adventure, and this pandemic certainly has been challenging. Every morning, I give thanks for seeing another day. I ask to become a better person than I was the previous day. I also give thanks for my family, and believe it or…

This has been one of my most difficult weeks in many years! For four weeks I’ve self-quarantined due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many others, my family and I continue adjusting while evaluating everything important to our lives. Everything seemed to…

Sensory overload! I’ve already completed my 15 days of self-quarantine and I’m ready to get out. Actually, I have been out a few times just to the grocery store and then back home. My family has been quarantined with me, with the exception…

Social distancing is the new norm. It reminds me of the two months I spent in the hospital after my first spontaneous pneumothorax. While hooked up to chest tubes and oxygen, I was pretty much sheltered in place. In the beginning…