I have been blessed with being the Health columnist since the “Ask the Doctor” column began over three years ago. Besides the opportunity to interact with readers and a wide array of doctors as we address medical questions that come in from Mishpacha’s readership I am also given the privilege of writing feature articles on medical conditions that affect a certain number of our readers. Our aims are to educate inspire give chizuk increase empathy and to shine the light on some extraordinary individuals who are living their life to the fullest albeit while managing the unusual challenges of a medical disability disease or condition.
This work brings me into that lovely place of hakaras hatov as I learn about diseases I don’t have and will never get. When I studied about growth hormones I was grateful that none of my children needed them even though we are a “short stature” family. When I interviewed several individuals who have Crohn’s disease I thought differently about how much I take for granted my ability to digest the food I eat without medication or pain. When I wrote a moving piece about the life journey of a woman with cystic fibrosis after a double lung transplant I wanted to appreciate every breath I take like I had never done before.
Admittedly when I wrote the feature on Alzheimer’s I forced myself back into that comfortable cocoon called denial because I know that it’s possible that it could be part of my future life as all four grandparents are alive baruch Hashem and my husband won’t let me cook with aluminum touching the food … just in case it could help postpone any senility that comes with age. As I am fifty-one I can manage not to think about Alzheimer’s on a daily basis as I still feel thirty-five on most days.
And then I was asked to write a feature article about osteoporosis. This one hit too close to home. I wanted to believe that if I take my calcium supplements like a good girl every day I will escape the dreaded fragile bones and shrinking spine of the older woman. And then I began my research talking to doctors individuals who have been diagnosed with the beginning stages of it and older women who suffer from its effects.
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