One of the main messages we want to convey in the book After the Diagnosis is "yes you can." When illness strikes, you often come away from your doctor with a list of "don'ts" and "thou shalt nots." A diagnosis seems to constrict all the options; to paraphrase the poet John Donne, the life of the invalid "shrinks to the foot of the bed." But I believe it's possible to open up the space and reclaim some of what sickness has taken away. I recently saw a patient-I'll call him Frank-- with polycystic kidney disease, PKD, a genetic condition that causes large cysts to develop on the kidneys. A risk-taker and sportsman before he got sick, Frank asked me if he could bungee jump or skydive, given the current state of his kidneys. I said, "Well, maybe bungee jumping is out"-the sudden pressure at the bottom of the fall might cause a cyst to explode-"but skydiving might work." I told him about another patient of mine with PKD, a hockey player, who had a special girdle made out of a football shoulder pad, which he wore to protect his abdomen when he was on the ice. Frank left the office not only with instructions to mind his diet and take his meds, but permission to take flight.