In 2014, when my daughter was entering her freshman year of college, I watched a segment of the TV news program “60 Minutes” that changed my life. In the segment, presenter Anderson Cooper reported on a mindfulness retreat he attended led by Jon Kabat-Zinn, often considered the…
Labor Day weekend means many things. It celebrates the achievements of the American worker while also marking the end of summer vacation and the start of a new school year. And to me, it’s the anniversary of my double-lung transplant. Three years ago on Labor Day weekend, I received…
Having two rare mutations that cause my cystic fibrosis (CF) has been a small blessing for me. It’s true that I’m unable to participate in many clinical trials that might have given me access to new medications; that’s because I don’t have a copy of the…
In 1994, I was 24 years old and engaged to be married. My health was good despite my cystic fibrosis (CF). My doctor hadn’t mentioned anything about family planning, so I decided to move forward with my life. A month before our wedding, my husband-to-be and I stopped…
My mother was recently cleaning out her attic, trying out the minimalist technique she’d seen on a Netflix show. In the process of deciding which items still bring her joy, she gathered a bag full of my school papers from childhood. Forty years later, she still couldn’t bring herself to…
As a new columnist for Cystic Fibrosis News Today, I welcome you to “Living Beyond.” I come from a time when the life expectancy for someone born with cystic fibrosis (CF) was around 11 years. At that time, the only medicines prescribed to treat CF…
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