Filter Me, Please!

“It looks like an attacker tried to slit my throat,” I thought when I looked in the mirror after getting stitches taken out following a partial thyroidectomy and 2 1/2 inch nodule removal surgery. “The only good thing is the biopsy shows no carcinoma so this was likely due to my condition.” Yesterday, I sat still as a nurse practitioner tugged on the string hanging out of my wound. She told me…

Leaving an hour and 10 minutes earlier wasn’t enough to prevent traffic from New Jersey into NYC from making me late. When the gps revealed I’d arrive10 minutes after my surgery check in time, I feared my surgery would be cancelled. Tears leaked out of my eyes and I felt a heaviness in my chest.  I mumbled, “we might as well turn around.” But, my husband kept driving. I knew that even if by some…

It’s rare that I post but I felt compelled to do so for rare disease day. Less than 24 hours ago, I spent hours at NYU Langone seeing specialists to deal with a new “side effect” from living with the autoimmune disease, IgG4-rd.  Chronic stress can exacerbate the development and progression of autoimmune diseases. I am sure my chosen career has not helped my health. Menopause isn’t doing me any…

I work in an industry which operates 24/7, seven days a week. This doesn’t change because it’s the holiday season. From the time I started working, I have always worked some holidays. This year, I am working on or right up to most holidays including today while many people who entered the business after me took off.  The heavy workload due to short staffing gets to me more and more each year.…

My youngest brother asked me the other day what I wanted for my birthday/christmas. I told him the answer was nothing or at least anything that money could buy.  When I got off the phone I told my husband about the exchange and asked if that’s a man thing; to ask what you want rather than pick something out.  He responded, “it does make it easier. If you tell me what you want I will get it.” I…

Last night while I was out to dinner with my husband, the waiter brought strawberry ice cream with a candle in it to our intimate two person table. My husband was grinning from ear to ear when he told me to, “blow out the candle and make a wish.” For more than a half a century, I have said the same thing. I’d mumble, “dear God please allow me to live as long as I can, as well as I can, and live…

One more birthday. Another year under my belt. I alone know the daily struggle to take pills, swallow food with dry mouth and an inflamed esophagus, workout despite pain, see through dry eyes, walk without lidocaine on my feet, and type with hands that sometimes don’t cooperate. I’m fortunate enough to do it. I’m blessed to still be here.  Every year, I pull out my list of things I want to…

Okay, I have to admit that after the late 80’s or early 90’s rap wasn’t my music of choice. So, when I watched the Super Bowl earlier this year I knew the name Kendrick Lamar but I didn’t know a lot of his music except for “The Blacker The Berry.” Then, I heard, “They Not Like Us.” Honestly, at the time I didn’t catch the lyrics but the phrase stuck with me.  “They Not Like Us,” has turned into…

I already know that my mouth can be a powerful tool to achieve benefits for myself and co-workers during contract negotiations, to join two people in marriage or pray for a soul’s every lasting peace in my role as a minister, and as a champion for the chronically ill and disabled when I talk about the challenges of living with an autoimmune disease. But,  my mouth can also spew profanity, anger,…

What we watch feeds the mind in either a good or bad way. I considered that as I put on my shirt for Day 13 of my Christmas sweater countdown. It was inspired by legendary “Dateline” journalist Keith Morrison. It said “it was a holiday just like any other or was it?” Those words turned out to be prophetic asmass killings at Brown University and Bondi Beach tainted the holiday season.  I digress.…

A usual lunch time for me is eating the breakfast I didn’t have time to consume earlier and decompressing so I can be ready to tackle my afternoon assignments. Today, I drove to the office for the first time in months. I parked on the side of the building in the press zone. It was near a door where a line of people were waiting for a show taping. I fumbled through my wallet, dug out my id and…

The funny thing about life is just when you think you have a handle on things or have a good flow something happens to upend it. Well, I was on a roll with posting my Christmas sweater countdown when I got derailed. Sweaters were worn but posting about them on social media was the least of my concerns. Initially I felt a sense of guilt. On some level, I felt like I was letting down the few…