31 Days of CF: Micah’s Story

Luisa Palazola avatar

by Luisa Palazola |

Share this article:

Share article via email

 

View this post on Instagram

 

31 Days of CF: For the month of May, CF News Today will be inviting those in the community to share their experiences and stories with particular topics and themes. To start off May Awarness, we’re happy to have @rekabhacim share What CF Means to Him: ⁣ Hello! My name is Micah, I am 30, and I have CF. For day one of 31 days of CF I am writing about what CF is to me. When I was fresh out of high school and living on my own CF was a Chance For living the way I ultimately wanted to. To feel, say, and act any way that I wanted to regardless of anyone else. It was freedom because I had an excuse to be as reckless as I wanted as long as it made me happy. So I went out all the time, stayed out late, drank too much, and let’s face it was looking for trouble. I spent my childhood and teenage years adhering to all of the rules of this disease and I wanted to break free. This is what CF was to me.⁣ ⁣ Fast forward, I hit a wall, I was getting tired of this “freedom” and it wasn’t doing anything for my health. I decided I wanted to live and live deeply. CF became this motivation to become stronger (mentally and physically). I fell in love, got married, and started working at a school filled with children whom I love. I found that instead of CF being this dark ominous cloud constantly looming over me it was actually this chance to paint something beautiful. CF has made me strong, caring, loving, and humble. It has allowed me to be a bright spot in the lives of others focusing on them more than myself. One thing I practiced while in the hospital was asking every staff member who entered my room how their day was going. It costed me nothing to ask and it greatly elevated my spirit and mindset to put myself aside and genuinely care and listen. I wanted to make their job of caring for me as pleasant as I could. So CF, to me, is a Chance For finding beauty and meaningfulness in the midst of suffering. ⁣ ⁣ What is CF your Chance For?⁣

A post shared by CFNewsToday (@cfnewstoday) on

Print This Page

About the Author

Luisa Palazola avatar
Luisa Palazola Luisa Palazola is a 25-year-old with CF living in Memphis, Tennessee. She injects her perspective as a Hispanic woman and her love for life and stories in all her interactions. In her downtime, she's learning Portuguese and is an avid coffee lover.

Reflecting on 31 Days of CF

Featured Column

How I Discovered That PTSD Was Causing My Post-transplant Struggles

PTSD, mental health, communities, stress, grateful, work, trauma, rare disease day, transplant, CF community, National Blood Donor Month, birthdays, holidays
Columnist Lara Govendo addresses an issue that several readers may relate to: post-transplant PTSD, which can wreak havoc.

Read the Column

Your CF Community


Visit the Cystic Fibrosis News Today forums to connect with others in the CF community.

Recent Posts

Recommended reading