My Rare Disease Part 9: Diagnosis
Back to Part 8: Rare Disease ~ Human powers of denial surpass those of reason by what seems like an exponential degree. And maybe it wasn’t surpr
My Rare Disease Part 10: A Note on Celiac Disease
Back to Part 9: Diagnosis ~ It has been nine years since my diagnosis, and I am still learning. I am sure I will never stop. I consider myself luck
My Rare Disease Part 8: Rare Disease
Back to Part 7: Tests ~ Around day seven they started doing different tests to explore the possibility that it might not be the stomach virus that
My Rare Disease Part 7: Tests
Back to Part 6: Pride ~ At night, the nurses took blood samples to monitor my condition. They came in every couple of hours, beginning at 11:00 p.m
My Rare Disease Part 6: Pride
Back to Part 5: Dignity ~ We developed a routine. After talking to the doctor each morning, my mother called my employers to let them know that I n
My Rare Disease Part 5: Dignity
Back to Part 4: Specter ~ My mother would later tell me that she’d seen in my eyes a look she had only seen twice before in her life—once in my
My Rare Disease Part 4: Specter
Back to Part 3: Stomach Virus ~ The next couple of days were a blur. I didn’t get any better. I lost more energy and more weight than I imagined
My Rare Disease Part 3: Stomach Virus
Back to Part 2: A History of Anxiety ~ On Christmas day after I moved back to Pennsylvania, I was still under the weather and unable to eat much of
My Rare Disease Part 2: A History of Anxiety
Back to Part 1: Sick ~ It started again, one week before Christmas. At first I wasn’t so worried about shedding a couple of pounds since I’d ga
My Rare Disease Part 1: Sick
My Rare Disease ~ How do you write about being sick? What can you possibly say in an effort to share and educate without annihilating every sub-at
Tara Caimi is an independent writer and editor with a B.A. in journalism and an M.F.A. in creative writing. Her essays, stories, and articles have appeared in journals and magazines including the Writer\'s Chronicle, The MacGuffin, Fire & Knives, and Oh Comely magazine.
