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We all do it. There’s a reason we have the phrase “keeping up with the Joneses,” which everyone knows and understands. For some reason, we want the outside world to see our lives through a specific viewfinder, one that shows the highlights with filters. Because of this, as a society…

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt once said of his fellow Irishmen, “I think there’s something about the Irish experience — that we had to have a sense of humor or die.” The tragic nature of Irish history certainly tested the ability of the Irish to maintain any sense of…

Shedding tears in frustration. Missing football games. Giving foot rubs and having heart-to-heart conversations. Being teased because I was in a wheelchair. Raising a boy to become a young man is hard enough without throwing myasthenia gravis into the mix. But I like to think we made the best…

What do you do when you are awakened by your son telling you that a dead tree just fell on his stepdad’s head? For me, a switch flipped, and I went into medic mode, something I hadn’t engaged in for years. Yet I returned to it in a split second…

So you have myasthenia gravis (MG). Some of your friends or family have distanced themselves from you. You take handfuls of pills every day to kinda-sorta function. Life isn’t what it used to be. Get over it. Yup, you heard me. Get over it. But hear me out.

The final lines of Voltaire’s “Candide” are some of my favorites in literature. As the story concludes, two of the main characters reflect on the “concatenation of events,” some of which were unpleasant and difficult, that ended in happiness for all. After a summation of their journey, the…

For the first time since my medical retirement from the U.S. Army in 2011, my myasthenia gravis (MG) is stable enough that I felt comfortable traveling 12 hours to North Dakota to go see my folks. By myself. The last time I got to see my mom was at…

The eye roll. The “I’m not listening but want you to think I am” head nod. The silence. The outbursts. Any or all of these have been responses I’ve received from people who are, or used to be, in my network when I provide updates on my life…

“Umm … are you OK? Why does it look like you’re having a stroke? It sounds like you’re drunk. What’s going on? Why are you choking on our dinner?” When your date has to ask these questions, it’s past time to mention that you have myasthenia gravis (MG).

“No man steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” — Heraclitus “It’s the paradox that the more you allow yourself to accept that change is inevitable, the more likely you are to change intentionally and adapt.” —…