Columns

Recently, I attended one of my favorite events of the year, the North Carolina Comicon. I’ve attended this show for five years in a row, and every staff member, guest, attendee, and wildly imaginative cosplayer who goes is family to me. This…

Every time I think I’ve run out of things to write about, life throws me a curveball. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been getting allergy shots on a pretty regular basis. The science behind allergy shots might seem a bit counterintuitive:…

I’d imagine if anyone who knows me were to describe me in one sentence, it would go something like this: “Oh, Alyssa? She’s that writer girl who runs a nonprofit organization for her disease, drinks way too much coffee for her own good, and has an unhealthy obsession…

For a couple of years now, I’ve been working to achieve a positive wave of change in my life. My ultimate goals are to provide for myself financially and move into my own home. In other words, live more on my own terms rather than being hostage to everyone…

Ella’s temperature rose overnight last week. She woke up with a sore throat and body aches, so she stayed home from school, which put a strain on the household because of her extra care needs. Lindsay, my wife, works as a children ministry…

One morning in August 2013, I woke up with a pain unlike anything I had felt before. It was excruciating, relentless, and in my mind, totally unprovoked, as I hadn’t done anything bad to my body the night before and I wasn’t sick. The worst part:…

I almost accidentally drank chunky coffee the other day. How’s that for the introduction of all introductions? I thought about easing you into it slowly in an attempt to avoid making your stomach squirm. I explored how I could go about this storyline in a manner that would…

Ella is curious. She seeks answers to the perplexing world of an 8-year-old, always wondering about the things she sees and experiences. She has a keen sense of people and their emotions. When fighting with her brother and sister, she is the one who often offers…

On Halloween this year, I dressed as the Marvel Comics superhero Daredevil. Blind lawyer Matt Murdock by day, and superhuman vigilante by night, Daredevil strikes fear into the hearts of his enemies as the guardian of Hell’s Kitchen. He is one of the most iconic…

There comes a point in every SMA patient’s life when someone asks, “Why are you in a wheelchair?” I like to think I’ve gotten pretty good at answering that question. I’ve done the research; I’ve looked up all the scientific terms; I’ve been through my fair…