Author: Bob Violino

Next week in the U.S. we will celebrate Thanksgiving, a national holiday that originated as a harvest festival wrapped around the idea of giving thanks. The holiday gives us an opportunity to get together with family, enjoy delicious food and maybe watch the Macy’s parade and a football game. Perhaps most important, Thanksgiving is a day to…

This post, first and foremost, is a love story. But I need to mention some medical stuff before I get to the love part. About 34 years ago I was heading into kidney failure because of a condition called polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a chronic ailment that reduces kidney function over time. PKD is one of the…

It’s so easy to take the day-to-day events of lives for granted. We tend to do many of the same, mundane things over and over again as part of our daily routines. Much of the time we probably don’t even give a lot of thought to—much less appreciate—what we are doing. Think of the things…

Are you putting off doing something that’s been nagging at you for a long time? Here’s the thing, it might keep nagging at you until you take action. And when you finally do, there’s a good chance you’ll feel grateful, if for no other reason than the nagging will have stopped. We all put things…

Sometimes I wonder if I’m simplifying the idea of embracing gratitude in these posts. The fact is, being grateful is difficult sometimes. It takes a lot of practice and persistence. I’m still working on being more grateful and constantly being distracted along the way. The important thing to remember, I think, is that embracing gratitude as…

Summer is winding down, which means we have a seasonal change approaching. This makes me think about and appreciate the great outdoors and all that it has to offer. If you’re looking for some inspiration and reasons to be grateful, maybe going outside to enjoy nature will do the trick. We recently had a block…

Some days can be a struggle. We all have those kinds of days, when we wake up and something seems off. Life seems a little bleaker and the world seems a little darker—for seemingly no particular reason. Those are the days when we have to dig deeper for strength. And those are the days when…

One of my favorite hobbies is taking pictures, especially of nature scenes. I don’t have a fancy camera; I use an iPhone. Those of us of a certain age understand that the great thing about photography and cameras today is that you can take countless pictures of things. And you instantly see the results of…

These have been interesting times for sure, full of ups and downs, challenges and triumphs. I’ve almost died twice during the past 11 months. I’ve been through a bunch of medical tests and procedures, a couple of surgeries and lots of physical therapy. Through it all, I have had the support of my family and…

It took several weeks to recuperate from my five-week hospital and rehab stay, but it was finally time for me to be fitted for a prosthetic foot. This was an exciting development! After relying on a wheelchair and a walker to get around, I would be taking the first step—no pun intended—toward walking on my…

In my previous post, I covered the experience of having my left foot amputated because of vascular disease. That was a challenge, to say the least. But within a matter of days things got worse. I was doing well following the surgery. The morning after the operation a physical therapist came to my room and…

This is a photo I took of a sunrise a few months ago. It’s not from a county or state park, preserve or other location where I like to take pictures. It’s through the window of my room at Glen Cove Hospital, where I stayed for a week and a half for acute rehab following a…