Daily living

I know it’s not a popular choice, but I enjoy sweet and tart zinfandel. I like the delightful pink color, and rosé is a snobby word that’s fun to say. Zinfandels should be enjoyed in the warm summer months, and are accompanied best by seafood. Maybe it’s just the…

“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.

I’ve been so exhausted before that I’ve said, “No one will know if I leave the kitchen looking like this.” Dirty dishes will be piled up in the sink, while clean dishes are still in the dishwasher. A sticky substance might appear on the counter, but thankfully the black marble…

My mom was incredibly angry with me, and rightfully so, the day I lost my retainer. We fed four kids on one income, yet somehow afforded braces and then a retainer, which I was supposed to wear all the time except when eating. I remember playing with the retainer in…

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…

The video series “Imagine My Life With NMO” has been launched by the Sumaira Foundation to help others in understanding what daily life can be like with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). In the series, Sumaira Ahmed, the European foundation’s creator and a NMOSD patient, interviews other patients, their loved…

“Can you walk down the hall for me, please?” My specialist, with a stern look on her face, waits patiently. “And back again toward me now.” It feels so ridiculous that, as a 40-year-old woman, I’m being asked to do this. I steady myself and walk down the hallway. I…

I never imagined that a nurse would slap me across my face, but it happened. The slap wasn’t hard — it was just enough to jolt me back to reality, and I was grateful the nurse had done it. About 10 years ago, I was waiting for my cesarean section…

We cannot separate science from life. Trust me, I’ve tried. Like most young people, I once thought of myself as invincible. So I was absolutely stunned when I was diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) at the age of 24. With the diagnosis, my world came crumbling down. Yet while…

For the first 10 years after I was diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica (NMO), I chose to keep my condition private because I worried about how others might perceive me. But over the past two years of the pandemic, I’ve made the conscious decision to own my truth. I’ve been…