Columns

New Hobbies That Test My Hand Dexterity? Sure!

Trying something new will always intimidate me. While my head might feel prepared, my body doesn’t always cooperate. This year my husband and I agreed to take in a homestay teenager who is studying dance at the same studio as our young daughter, Sophie. Sydney, our 15-year-old homestay daughter, is…

Let’s Talk About Sex, Intimacy, and Rare Disease

“Let’s talk about sex, baby/ Let’s talk about you and me/ Let’s talk about all the good things/ And the bad things that may be/ Let’s talk about sex.” — Salt-N-Pepa My friends and I used to giggle every time this song came on the radio in the early 1990s.

How Air Travel Can Affect NMO Patients

At one point in my life, I thought I wanted to be a flight attendant. As a first-generation Canadian, my parents, who immigrated here in 1968, told me stories of foreign countries and the people, the unique food, and the different languages. For most of my childhood, I grew up…

Mask or No Mask? That Is the Question

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, many of us across the country have been doing everything we can to protect those around us and ourselves. I still remember when a federal mask mandate on public transportation was issued in the U.S. at the start of…