Muscle Memoirs:
LGMD Experiences — Patrick Moeschen

This August will mark 40 years since I was diagnosed with what we eventually discovered was limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. Though it’s taken me many years to accept my condition, it’s progressed…

Each of my writings in this column has focused on living life with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. While the mission of Bionews, the parent company of this website, includes sharing what it’s like to…

A close friend of 30 years recently asked what my life was like before I was diagnosed with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. When I met this man, we were both in college, studying music…

“ICE” is a widely used acronym for “in case of emergency.” In today’s fast-paced world, many people have ICE contacts on their phones and folders on their computers that tell others who to…

I’ve been married for 11 years. Before then, as I grew up with what I eventually discovered was limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, I learned a lot about life, perseverance, and relationships. During my 20s,…

In August 1985, I was diagnosed with Becker muscular dystrophy. At that time, there was no genetic test for the disease, nor DNA sequencing of the blood. Instead, I underwent a muscle…

Since I began writing for Bionews, the parent company of Muscular Dystrophy News Today, I’ve connected with many people living with chronic illness outside of my “comfort community” — those with forms…

The power to influence or even direct people’s behavior or the course of events is part of a typical definition of “control.” When living with a chronic illness, as I am with limb-girdle…

People living with a chronic illness, including me, commonly explore how we deal with grief, which is the subject of much theory and research. I’ve thought deeply about how living with limb-girdle muscular…

Like me, my colleagues here at Bionews, the parent company of this website, write about their lives with chronic illness. In our columns, “we make a promise to our rare disease communities to deliver…

In my four decades of life with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, I’ve become comfortable educating everyone I meet about my quality of life and the ways all of us living with chronic, rare…

I believe that all of us who live with a chronic illness deal with a future full of unknowns. We all wrestle with uncertainty regarding quality of life from year to year, month…