Fabry: A Road Less Traveled
— Jerry Walter

While we all make decisions in our lives, it’s important to think through the consequences of the most significant ones, especially when they involve our health and the COVID-19 pandemic. Living with Fabry disease, a rare and potentially life-threatening…

Throughout my life, I’ve often put mind over matter to cope with the manifestations of my multisystem disease. I used this mindset during my 27-year military career to meet the rigorous physical demands of military life while managing Fabry…

Millions of adults around the world have hearing loss. Like me, most people have a relative who speaks loudly, turns up the volume on the television, uses closed-captioning on the TV, asks people to repeat everything, and gets close…

Because April is Fabry Disease Awareness Month, I, along with many organizations and people, help to educate patients, family members, friends, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and the broader population to improve the recognition, diagnosis, understanding, and management of Fabry disease.

I never imagined my first episode of irregular heartbeats, or arrhythmias, in the late 1970s would lead to getting a heart transplant decades later. When I had my first episode, I didn’t know I had Fabry disease. I…

Because Fabry disease affects multiple bodily systems, it was easy to get in the habit of managing each symptom separately, focusing on the symptom that needed the most attention at the moment. I’ve learned over time that my Fabry…

Fabry disease is a progressive, potentially life-threatening, rare, genetic disorder. Many people with Fabry disease succumb to heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke at relatively young ages. A common question asked by people diagnosed with Fabry disease is, “How…

I am a 66-year-old male with Fabry disease, which causes many adverse and potentially life-threatening symptoms. As I look back on some of my major life events, I often think about the saying, “A cat has nine lives.”…

As a boy, I wasn’t aware Fabry disease caused the many physical issues I experienced, such as a reduced ability to perspire (called hypohidrosis), intolerance to hot temperatures and strenuous physical activity, pain (acroparesthesia) from small…

I had a happy childhood. It was fun to grow up in a large family with six brothers and one sister, especially during the holidays. I am the third eldest. As part of a low-to-middle-income family, we all received…

Everyone performs their own balancing act to navigate the many facets of their lives. Most people have competing interests and needs of one kind or another. Finding the middle ground to keep everything in sync can be challenging. People…

For my introductory Fabry Disease News column, I’d like to share a little about me and my journey with Fabry disease. Just over 40 years ago, in 1979, Fabry disease was discovered in my family. My mother was diagnosed…