My personal goal has always been to run the New York City Marathon. As New York residents, my family and I have volunteered at the event for 22 years. In 2019, I decided to start training by walking and working up to running long distances.

A month after the race, I started to notice painful swallowing, then a dull pain in my right ear. Each day, the discomfort got worse. I knew something was wrong and called my primary care doctor...