This is a true story: In late 2007, I was in the E.R. with a lab result of "undetectable blood." In the days that followed, I contracted aspiration pneumonia, sepsis, and was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). This required a stem-cell transplant that led to graft-versus-host disease (GVH). My skin and fingernails fell off, I had trouble walking and needed a wheelchair, I developed achalasia of the stomach where the stomach sphincter muscle tightens and causes an inability to swallow food, and I was on a feeding tube for a year. I went blind in one eye and could hardly see in the...