It’s easy to forget what’s most important when living with a chronic health condition. I reflect on this often, especially when I’m working out at the gym or trying to do “normal” activities. Achieving a sense of normalcy with sarcoidosis is difficult, especially during a pandemic. A shifting sense…

My last doctor’s appointment of 2021 was on Dec. 30 and involved a six-minute walk test and a follow-up with my pulmonologist. The walk test didn’t seem to go well, as I required more supplemental oxygen than I usually do while working out at the gym. I explained this to…

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane,” Martin Luther King Jr. said in 1966. I have COVID-19. As of this writing, I am one of 326 million people who have contracted this disease worldwide. As a pulmonary sarcoidosis fighter who…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted orphan drug designation to aTyr Pharma’s experimental immunomodulatory molecule ATYR1923 for the treatment of sarcoidosis. The therapy is being developed for severe inflammatory diseases affecting the lungs, which in sarcoidosis patients is called pulmonary sarcoidosis. Orphan drug status is given to…

“Calvin, put that doughnut down!” someone said to me about nine years ago, poking my stomach like I was the Pillsbury Doughboy. It was a funny joke that made me laugh, but it was also true. Over time, I had gained quite a bit of weight and didn’t…

I go to the gym because I know it’s good for me to stay active and to get some physical exercise. Recently, I found out that it also helps me trust myself to take charge of my own well-being. I was fortunate to have participated in…

Today is my infusion day, and I’m excited and hopeful. I’ve been taking Inflectra (infliximab-dyyb) for about four months. Before that, I was on Remicade (infliximab), until my insurance company suddenly stopped approving it, compelling me to switch. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers the two to…

People with autoimmune diseases such as sarcoidosis are not at higher risk of worse outcomes following lung or heart-lung transplants compared with people without such diseases, a new single-center study shows. The findings that autoimmune patients fare as well as others following such transplants refute the long standard approach…

This month marks two and a half years that I’ve lived in New York City after moving here from Maryland. Although we’ve been living amid the COVID-19 pandemic for much of that time, I can certainly see why there are so many songs about this city. It is a…

“I am thankful to all those who said no. It’s because of them, I did it myself.” — Wayne W. Dyer Now that we’re approaching the thick of the holiday season, it’s time for us sarcoidosis warriors to be thankful for what we have and what…