Candle lit. Prayer said. Respects paid. Today marks thirty-eight years since Duchenne muscular dystrophy took my brother, Joseph, away. No matter how far removed I am from that day, the loss still looms and inflicts a harsh emotional jab. At fifteen, he didn’t even have a chance to taste life, and I never had the […]
I’m a little over two weeks removed from my latest brush with death. I went into a little something that those of us in the business refer to as V-tach, short for ventricular tachycardia. That’s when the lower chamber of your ticker suddenly decides to beat ridiculously fast, and if left untreated, will eventually kill […]
Turning 45 the other day and beating Duchenne muscular dystrophy to the punch one more time has definitely given me an extreme sense of satisfaction. Again, I managed to bob and weave my way around this killer of a disease, and the grand feeling of accomplishment never gets old, even at my age. Score another […]
At a Spring Training game a few weeks ago, my nurse James and I settled into the disabled seating area to enjoy a relaxing afternoon. A non-disabled older man, seated to our immediate right with his scooter dependent wife next to him, initiated some friendly banter with James. After all, you would expect an exchange […]
So, I’ve been sparring with this tracheal infection since the end of last July. It is one of those nagging things that just would not go away! Two different physicians – my internist and ENT specialist – took turns at knocking out this staph, a bug common to those of us with tracheostomy tubes in […]
I was going to write and publish this post yesterday, but my brain was far from cooperating. Strange how difficult it is to write when your mind is preoccupied with the potential for being electrocuted by a little metal time-bomb inside your chest! Here’s the scoop… Yesterday was my quarterly visit to the Orlando Heart […]
September 12th has always been a somber day for me. Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) claimed my brother Joseph on this day thirty-six years ago, and I’m still feeling the pain. This disease nudges me every single day, but on 9/12 it slaps me extra hard across the face with the white glove and offers a […]
A rough week of pain reminded me of earlier this summer when tremendous discomfort invaded my left hand and wrist and forced me to pay a rare visit to the orthopedist. I don’t like going to the orthopedist because I usually face ridiculously lengthy wait periods. I certainly have about a thousand better things to […]
I used to be strictly old school when it came to portable ventilators. My belief was if it was built like a tank, it was reliable. And for the most part, I was usually correct. You could hit my old ventilator with a sledgehammer fifty times and it would still deliver. It was indestructible, the […]
Yes, change is inevitable, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we always have to like it. My new power wheelchair arrived three weeks ago and I have just now begun to get all the kinks worked out. Let’s just say I haven’t really enjoyed the transition from old to brand new. I am never all too […]
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