Columns

When I met Alexander, he was thin, his nose bled a lot, and he had tubes in his ears. I was a lonely first-grader fresh to Hawaii, and just as thin and malfunctioning as the brother I didn’t yet know. How could I ever adequately thank the teacher…

In the days after I got new lungs, I’d pray for the healing to move faster so I could get on with life. I’d stand in front of a mirror and stare at the transplantation scars that cracked my chest as they shifted from blazing red to…

“There’s no other way to paint it. I’m in pain. That’s my life. And no one can help me.” That was what I texted my husband after the third day of injustice from my biliary system. For the past few weeks, I’d deluded myself into thinking that what I…

Few phenomena fascinate me more than human happiness. So often we get caught up in the idea that we would be happier if so-and-so happened. I’m sure I won’t be the first to tell you that the grass ain’t always greener on the other side. This idea is known as…

We need to talk about pain. Growing up, there was a clear delineation in my mind: Cystic fibrosis (CF) could be painful sometimes, but it wasn’t a disease that caused constant pain. It was almost a mantra in my mind: “At least I’m not always…

At night I lie awake and I worry about you. I worry if you’ll drive home safely that night. If the ache in your chest is really a ticking time bomb, rather than a proton pump inhibitor problem known by most. I worry because I love, and I love…

Climate change is an emergency facing humanity. As we continue to burn fossil fuels and release greenhouse gases, solar heat levels build up in the atmosphere, which acts as an incubator, causing our planet to get hotter. Some populations will be more severely affected by climate change than others…

I have what some might call a bad habit. I can easily spend hours a day playing video games. My favorites are role-playing games that allow me to create my own character, down to the most minute details of their appearance and backstory. It’s common…

On some days, the motivation to pedal a stationary bike and feel the burn and breathlessness for 20 straight minutes is buried under a layer of mucus lining most of my airways. Pulmonary rehab five days a week has tuned my body so that I can dramatically feel the weakness…

My tattoos hold more stories than my scars. In a way, my tattoos are my scars — they’re just the ones I chose. After almost every major medical hurdle, I’ve decompressed through ink. It’s a way of choosing the needles that hurt me, instead of having them forced upon me.