It has been an interesting week. I was having a conversation with a friend about getting back into the workforce. Although I have pulmonary sarcoidosis, I believe my 30-plus years as a video professional should still be relevant in the marketplace, especially during a…

With Halloween just days away, I’ve been thinking about fear. Not the holding-your-breath, muscle-clenching, waiting-for-horrors to unfold type. But rather the run-of-the-mill scares we’ve pushed down so deep we’ve forgotten they’re even there.  The idea that I’m avoiding fear has been flitting through my mind for months. It became…

A photo of a bespectacled young boy, his red baseball cap slightly askew as he  enjoys time outside, will be featured on the front cover of an upcoming calendar in the “Same But Different” contest to raise awareness about rare disorders. “A Lovely Day Out in Kew Gardens,”…

A majority of rare disease patients using telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic thought the experience positive, and many would like the option of continuing its use in future appointments, a series of surveys found. The surveys were conducted by the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) and involved more than 800…

A best friend from high school occasionally stops by to let my wife and me know what’s going on in her life and to check on my health. We all sit on my porch — socially distanced, of course — with cocktails in hand while we’d…

Bad habits usually sneak up on me. I glide along thinking I’m in control until I get hit with the realization that I’m not. That moment arrived for me on a recent morning when I decided to skip the news.  It shouldn’t have been a big deal. But eating…

My wife, my son, and I moved into our house in August 1996. The house initially belonged to my aunt, who lived there since 1982, the year my wife and I graduated from high school. When my aunt and uncle went on trips, I was…

After being diagnosed with pulmonary sarcoidosis, I became a pro at protecting my lungs. Or so I thought. Even now, 18 years later, I’m still discovering threats I had overlooked. October is “Healthy Lung Month” in the U.S. Leaving my pulmonologist’s office all those years ago, I thought I…

I went to bed in the fourth quarter of “Monday Night Football” with my brother Antony’s words haunting me. My favorite team was losing, and I knew what he’d say about abandoning them for sleep: “There’s a lot of game left.” Antony believes in comebacks, and so do I,…

People are always surprised to hear that I travel from Pennsylvania to Ohio for medical appointments. Whether it’s an hour-long flight or a seven-hour trip by car, they think it sounds like an inconvenience. But after months of seeing local physicians, I’ve come to appreciate how much easier my out-of-state…