Before I was diagnosed, I constantly tried to hide the fact that I was sick. I was embarrassed by it. I didn’t want to cancel plans, leave early or tell people I couldn’t do something because I wasn’t feeling well. So, most of the time, I just didn’t. I went to work sick. I went to parties sick. I went out to dinner sick. Basically, I went everywhere sick and hoped no one noticed. [More]

September makes me happy. Fall is my favorite time of year, and September means cooler weather and the holidays are right around the corner. I love Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I look forward to everything that comes with the next few months. Of course, for those of us living with chronic illness, fall also means something a little less exciting: cold and flu season. [More]

Living with a chronic illness comes with a surprising number of jobs I never applied for: patient, advocate, medical researcher, insurance negotiator, appointment scheduler and medication manager. After enough years of this, I have also become someone who can casually throw around medical terminology that once would have required Google and possibly a dictionary. [More]

For people living with primary immunodeficiency (PI), immune globulin (IG) replacement therapy has come a long way. What began as a painful treatment with limited effectiveness has evolved into several options that allow patients and their physicians to choose the approach that best fits their medical needs and lifestyle. When IG first became available in the 1950s, it could only be given as an intramuscular (IM) injection. While this was an important step forward at the time, it had significant drawbacks. Only a small amount of medication could be injected into a muscle during each treatment, making it difficult to provide enough IG for most people with PI. The injections were also painful and had to be given frequently, making treatment far from ideal. [More]

If you know me, you know I don't slow down very well. My brain is always 10 steps ahead of the rest of me. While I’m doing one thing, I’m already making a mental list of the next 10. My husband will tell you I can turn “relaxing” into a project if you give me five minutes. Living with a chronic illness never really changed that. Even when I was sick, I wasn‘t very good at resting. Instead of focusing on getting through today, I was already planning everything I was going to do once I felt better. [More]

If you’ve read my articles for any length of time, you know I spend a lot of time talking about the challenges patients face. I write about insurance denials, prior authorizations, delayed diagnoses and the frustrations that come with living with a chronic illness. Those issues are real, and they deserve attention. But today, I want to write about something different. I want to say thank you. A few weeks ago, I had a bad fall that left me badly injured. [More]

When most people think about primary immunodeficiency (PI), they think about bacterial infections. This is because many patients do not produce enough antibodies to effectively fight bacteria. However, some patients also experience recurrent or persistent viral infections. [More]

For some of you, this may not be relevant yet, but it will be soon.
What I am talking about is heat. While it may be cool yet where you live, where I live, summer has already arrived. Along with it comes everything that makes this time of year what it is: trips to the beach, backyard barbecues, pool parties, vacations and long sunny days. There is a lot to love about summer. [More]