Going back to the hospital in Fairfax, Virginia, felt in some ways like returning to the scene of a crime. I walked by the gift shop, toward the elevators that would take me down to the basement to Pulmonary Diagnostics. I couldn’t shake the sense that I had left something…
PHighting Words - a Column by Mike Naple
I’m tired just from typing these words. A rare disease like pulmonary hypertension doesn’t operate in a vacuum — side effects run aplenty. One of them is a feeling of chronic fatigue. Exhaustion seems ever-present in my life; like the shadow cast imposingly from the bag that carries my oxygen…
When we’re growing up, I imagine many of us are not thinking about the costs of healthcare. For many kids, healthcare means a Band-Aid with disinfectant and a kiss on the knee, and a few trips to the doctor’s office for dreaded shots. A child’s focus never wanders beyond the…
Sometimes when I think about the symptoms of pulmonary hypertension — dizziness, shortness of breath, dry cough, and chest pain — I wonder if my diagnosis had just been waiting a decade to hear its name. When I was in my teens and early 20s, I loved the rush of…
The office looked like an Ikea showroom. I didn’t know what I was going to say, or how he would respond. It was my first time seeing a therapist and I found myself there at the urging of loved ones. At this point, in May 2016, I was a little…
I didn’t know what pulmonary hypertension was before my diagnosis. When I would tell friends and family about the disease, almost all of them learned about it for the first time through those conversations. As I began adjusting to life with PH, vigorously searching for stories of other people facing…
Greetings! If you’re reading this post you most likely are: Living with pulmonary hypertension; have a loved one, family member or friend who is fighting this rare disease; a healthcare provider; or have joined the fight to find a cure in some advocacy or research capacity. Whoever you are…
