On Disability

It is a shock, after a long exciting career, to learn that you have an incurable disease that renders you disabled. One day it wasn't there; the next day it was. (Although in truth it probably had been coming on for a couple of years.) The diagnosis: Idiopathic (of unknown cause) Pulmonary Hypertension. Who had ever heard of it before? I certainly hadn't.

It is a disease that scars the lungs and creates high pressures in the lungs. It only involves the heart as the disease runs it course. The heart has to work harder to get oxygenated blood from the lungs and, over time, enlarges. Most sufferers of this disease die of congestive heart failure. It is a rare, progressive, and (as I said) incurable disease, although medical science has made remarkable progress over the last few years in treating it.

"Idiopathic." No one knows how or why I came down with pulmonary hypertension. It's a lung disease, but I never smoked. In life, people encounter difficulties. Mostly I've seen that happen to others, including my own children. There will be more on that in this blog.

Now being permanently disabled, with time on my hands, I am looking back at the full life I've had and reflecting on events, people, and challenges. Ah, life. We should never be disappointed in it. Through the years I've learned to be grateful for all experiences. Each one contributes to who I am and what it means to be alive and human.