Patient Stories (Page 18)

Eighteen people die each day because there aren’t enough organs available for those in need, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. [caption id="attachment_3823" align="alignright" width="300"] Laurie Miller of Harrisonburg donated a kidney to a stranger in need.[/caption] Eighteen. And there are more than 100,000 people on…

My knees hurt. This is nothing new. After dancing fairly rigorously for 14 years, they started hurting when I was in high school, and I had to quit. Now in my mid-thirties - working at a desk job, wearing heels, running and doing yoga several times a week - it…

Recreation therapist Laurie Sewell sits cross-legged on the floor of a UVA hospital conference room. She’s demonstrating infant massage techniques on a doll while 2-year-old Haley Poore watches her and plays with a colorful toddler toy. [caption id="attachment_3742" align="alignright" width="300"] Recreational therapist Laurie Sewell (right) and Mended Little Hearts volunteer…

Sultan Kosen is eight feet three inches tall, and for the first time in his life, he knows that’s his maximum height. Kosen, of Turkey, had acromegaly — a condition where a tumor caused his pituitary gland to produce excessive growth hormone. In May 2010, UVA endocrinologist Mary Lee Vance,…

Each Monday this month, we’re looking at the UVA Cancer Center’s Integrative Medicine Program. How would you react if you found out the 4.5-centimeter lump on your breast was cancer?  What if you were just 31 years old, otherwise healthy and a busy student working towards a PhD? [caption id="attachment_2979"…

After running his first marathon in November 2010, Todd Smith was in the best shape of his life. At 49 years old, he felt great. So it came as a surprise in early 2011 when he started having frequent bouts of unexplained lightheadedness. [caption id="attachment_2530" align="alignright" width="300"] Heart rhythm patient…

About 10 years ago, Linda Moses of Bridgewater, Va., felt something “rip” inside her right knee as she slipped while docking her family’s sailboat off the coast of Charleston, S.C.

Shirley Caparn has been cancer-free since 1984. But she’s reminded of it every day, because she lost her right breast during the surgery that saved her life. So she’s become a fan of Flourish Boutique, UVA’s new boutique for cancer patients and survivors. Before Flourish opened, Caparn purchased bras for…

It’s not every day you get to meet a living legend. On the eve of November, National Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, that’s what I got to do — talk to one of the very, very few people alive who has survived pancreatic cancer. She also happens to be Debbie Ryan,…

Leah Yetzer, 30, was 37 weeks pregnant with twin boys in 2009 when doctors discovered she’d developed HELLP syndrome, a rare but serious condition that occurs during pregnancy or just after delivery. HELLP reduces red blood cells and increases liver enzymes. Leah was airlifted to UVA, where she had a…