IPF Foundation board member Anne Ballentine never really realized how prevalent Pulmonary Fibrosis was until she looked at her own network of family, friends and neighbors. The incidence of IPF has doubled over the past decade, and we don’t know exactly why it’s...

In the years since my IPF diagnosis, I’ve became fearful of many things. Some of my fears came from thoughts I had buried deep inside my mind, which I didn’t dare speak about out loud, whereas other fears developed as a result of experience. One thing I wasn’t scared...

It is an understatement to say that being diagnosed with a chronic illness causes everything to feel out of control for a patient and their family. The loss of control tends to happen in two phases: 1) the acute phase, which is everything that feels out of control...

Following my diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in 2016, I was told by my physicians that this disease could progress in one of two ways. The first was that the fibrosis would progress rapidly and leave me short of breath and fatigued with a chronic...

Patients living with any type of compromised immune system or respiratory disease understand implicitly the importance of staying away from germs. The caveat is that despite our chronic illness, patients still have to run errands, travel, and be in public so the...

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a cruel disease, one that complicates many aspects of a patient’s life. Constantly feeling short of breath and exhausted is not for the faint of heart. It takes an enormous amount of strength and perseverance to live with IPF on...

It is easy to assume that a disease characterized by fibrotic tissue in the lungs, preventing a patient’s ability to breathe, would affect them physically. This is a very basic description of a cruel, widely misunderstood lung disease called pulmonary fibrosis (PF)....

In honor of Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month, I’d like to tell you, in my own voice, what it’s been like living with a terminal lung disease as a young woman. Naturally, I felt very alone, unsettled, and isolated from my peers when I was diagnosed. Sharing about my...

In honor of Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month, I’d like to tell you, in my own voice, what it’s been like living with a terminal lung disease as a young woman. Naturally, I felt very alone, unsettled, and isolated from my peers when I was diagnosed. Sharing about my...