In the fall of 2020, Danielle Soviero felt as if she were right where she should be. She had graduated from college two years earlier and had begun her career as an early childhood teacher. “I look back at those years fondly,” she says. “I was just...
A typical New Yorker walks more than 8,000 steps a day — but what happens when every step causes excruciating pain? This was what Charles*, a 40-year-old television editor in Manhattan, experienced when a herniated disc left him unable to sleep,...
Jamie Igneri, 31, lives a pretty idyllic life these days. The special-ed math teacher lives in Manalapan, New Jersey, with her husband, Chris, and their toddler daughter. Jamie’s peaceful life is a far cry from in 2021, when a flare-up of back pain...
At age 79, Barbara Rothenberg is the matriarch of a large, tightknit family. She presides over eight successful children — seven lawyers and a pediatric nurse practitioner — as well as 50 grandkids and 17 great-grandchildren. As the managing partner...
Jarrod San Angel, 45, of Long Island City, Queens, is a senior academic advisor in student advising services at LaGuardia Community College and has a rich, full life: he loves to travel and sample new cuisines, write music, and attend concerts. Yet...
Tovah Ehrlich was 24 years old, feeling fine, and working as a receptionist as she began her last year at Queens College. In the home stretch of earning her degree, Tovah spent her free time painting, reading, or hanging out with friends — until...
When Shanon Lajoie moved to New Jersey in 2020, it was her third state in ten years. Shanon’s career had taken her from Connecticut to both coasts of Florida to New Jersey, with one constant and unwanted companion: the whooshing in her ears caused...
For the first 11 years of her life, she suffered from nighttime seizures. Thanks to Dr. Hoffman and her team, she and her family didn't have to worry anymore.
Chaniya Wigfall, 20, is a full-time student in Syracuse, New York. An aspiring microbiologist originally from Harlem, New York, she recently finished up a summer internship at a lab in Binghamton. In her spare time, she jokes, “I like crocheting,...
Steve Smith, a businessman and avid golfer from Long Island, New York, was 50 years old when he started to develop a tremor on his left side. It didn’t bother him at first, but over the next ten years the tremor grew worse. Things like drinking a...
