Becoming Visible – a Column by Elizabeth Rogers

Cystic fibrosis is, for the most part, considered an invisible illness. Shortness of breath isn’t visible. Pain in our joints and the discomfort of digestive issues may show on our faces, but those symptoms aren’t represented by the aids and devices typically associated with disability or disease.

Everyone with cystic fibrosis knows that feeling. Sometimes, it creeps up on you slowly. Other times, it hits right away, like a truck speeding down the wrong side of the highway. That feeling is, of course, caused by side effects from antibiotics. As I sit here, going…

The month of May rolls around and I find myself trying to take the perfect selfie. I want to capture not only my face, but also my percussive Vest device and my nebulizer. But getting it all into one shot is tricky; at some…

Sometimes it seems as if everyone knows what they would do in your shoes, and they are happy to tell you so. “If I were you,” they might say, “I wouldn’t even bother with college. I’d just travel the world. College takes up too much…

I’ve spent most of my life hearing that the cure for cystic fibrosis is just around the corner. Just wait a few more years, they keep saying, and it’s going to be right there. Then a few years passed, and a few more, and the cure seemed…

When you have cystic fibrosis, having hobbies is an essential part of maintaining mental health. It gives you something else to focus on and to pour yourself into, alleviating your worries and taking your mind off things, at least for the time being. But what happens when life becomes difficult…

Sexuality is complicated. Sexuality when you have chronic illness is doubly so. Finding out who you are and what you may or may not be attracted to becomes a mess when you factor in antibiotics that can easily affect libido, plus comorbidities like depression that can often cast a gray pall…

Doctors diagnosed me with cystic fibrosis (CF) at 18 months old and I recently turned 29. It’s safe to say I’ve never known a life without it. Growing up, I became accustomed to treatments and pills, my life punctuated by responsibilities in the midst of childhood fun. Despite all that,…