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“Focus on breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.” ER doctors told me this as I tried slowing my heart rate down after feeling palpitations following my numerous breathing treatments. My heart rate eventually went down with the help…

Second in a series. Read part one. I’ll be the first to admit that I did not want a transplant. Even when I was dying, I didn’t want a transplant. I was scared. But I was dying, and I was 23 years old.

“What goes up must come down.” When thinking about pulmonary hypertension and chronic illness, this saying holds so much truth. It is disheartening to come to terms with the fact that although there are good days when I can manage my illness, there…

First in a series.  Lung transplantation has an image problem. People often refer to transplant as the “last resort” or a “backup plan,” terms that connote failure. I’m no public relations guru, but I’m pretty well-versed in the success that’s possible with a…

I recently had a checkup with my PH specialist. At my previous appointment, he had told me that he would soon be recruiting PH patients to take part in a study involving the use of stem cells. He expressed excitement over what a good candidate I…

Vacation for anyone should be relaxing, enjoyable, and a great stress relief. With pulmonary hypertension and chronic illness, it’s not easy to be stress-free when it comes to planning and partaking in a trip. After a recent weekend of travel to…

I still vividly remember the day I was hospitalized and kept overnight to be picked and probed like a lab rat. A medical team ran dozens of tests to figure out why, at the age of 25, I was in heart failure, and had a low…

“It’s only when our support systems look like they might fail us that you realize how much we depended on them all along.” –Meredith Grey, “Grey’s Anatomy” With pulmonary hypertension and all types of chronic illness, difficult days are…

  As a freelance photographer, I spend most of my working hours at home alone, editing photographs on my computer. Most of my photo shoots are scheduled in the evenings and on weekends. My friends who are not photographers work 9-to-5 jobs (or 10:30 to 4,…

According to the Mayo Clinic, pulmonary hypertension is defined as “a type of high blood pressure that affects the arteries in your lungs and the right side of your heart.” When someone talks about pulmonary hypertension, they often think of only the lungs. Although…

The older I get, the more I relate on a spiritual level to Mike the Situation from “Jersey Shore” trying to force his head through a concrete wall in Italy. A few weeks before my 30th birthday, my PH specialist gave me the green light.

Living with a chronic illness is both mentally and physically exhausting. Managing the seemingly endless symptoms of fatigue, shortness of breath, dizziness, muscle pain, and headaches can seem like enough work for a lifetime. These symptoms are considered as being “common” for those…