Model Patient: My Life As an Incurable Wise-Ass

From Revlon spokesmodel to film actress to one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People," Karen Duffy was living the life most of us only dream of. Then her whirlwind life of celebrity parties came to an abrupt, grinding halt when she was stricken with a serious illness in one of its rarest forms: sarcoidosis of the central nervous system.

Duffy soon realized that the only way for her to survive was not to take the disease too seriously. Instead of hiding from life, she chose to run to...