After rolling out of bed a disheveled mess I got ready to begin my daily medical rituals; I started my tube feeds, took a fist full of medication, did a few breathing treatments, rubbed myself down in BioFreeze, and then turned on my laptop. It was going to be a good day! I mean how could it not? The first things I see when my computer whirs to life is my face on the front of one of favorite websites. Next to me my little oxygen concentrator started beeping, alerting me that I had waited to long to take a breathe. (How embarrassing. I had literally forgot to breath out of excitement.) I took a nice deep breath through my cannulas, and got ready to read my article! The title read:

I feel fortunate to live while my body slowly deteriorates, to not be bound to death like I was in December even though I am riddled with failing organs, and a fatal prognosis. Someday again I will be dying, lying in a hospital bed with only days left ahead of me — and truthfully yes, if you want to define “dying” as losing a battle to illness then I am in every sense of the term dying… but personally I like to call residing in this defective body, riddled by disease: successfully, and enthusiastically living.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.