Nicole Kohr,  —

Nicole Kohr is a cystic fibrosis patient, a bilateral lung transplant recipient, and an award-winning writer. After spending her childhood split between live musical theater performances and an isolated hospital room, Nicole returned to her roots - writing. The founder of Colie Creations Inc, her mission is to advocate for patients through storytelling.

Articles by Nicole Kohr

‘You’re Wonderful’: How Society Labels CF Patients

“Is one a crusader or ruthless invader?/ It’s all in which label is able to persist.” That’s one of my favorite lines from “Wonderful,” a lesser-known song in the Broadway smash “Wicked.” I was recently reminded of this song when one of my best friends, a fellow cystic fibrosis…

‘Strangers Like Me’: An Open Letter to the CF Community

Movie musicals are the hottest trend in the musical theater community right now. “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Tick, Tick… Boom!” are just two of the adaptations, and it’s rumored that “Tarzan” is the next show to move from stage back to the big screen. Fans of the 1999 animated Disney…

‘Her Voice’: How Cystic Fibrosis Affects Vocals

“Her Voice” from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” is one of the most beautiful songs. In the Broadway show it was sung by Sean Palmer as Prince Eric, and his voice hits me right in the hormones: “And her voice It’s sweet as angels sighing And her voice…

A Spoonful of Sugar: My Diabetes Diagnosis, Part 2

Second in a series. Read part one.  In my previous column, I described the lead-up to my diabetes diagnosis. Let’s resume where we left off: in an isolated room at CarolinaEast Medical Center’s emergency department (ED) in New Bern, North Carolina. Upon my admission for an extremely high blood…

A Spoonful of Sugar: My Diabetes Diagnosis, Part 1

First in a two-part series. Turns out a spoonful of sugar did not help the medicine go down. Instead, it aggravated my steroid-induced diabetes. Allow me to provide a little background. Based on issues I had throughout childhood, such as food sensitivities and digestive issues, my pediatric team suspected…

New Year’s Resolutions for the Chronically Ill

At the start of each new year, I try not to have regrets from the previous year, especially as related to my cystic fibrosis. “Forget about that handful of medication you missed,” I’ll tell myself. Or, “So what if you didn’t stick to your diet!” Then, I’ll watch an old…

How Chronic Illness Affected My Education

In a previous column, I explained that I was diagnosed with mycobacterium abscessus — one of the deadliest infections for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients — in my junior year of college, and how that was one of the many times that my chronic illness affected my education. I was…