Columns

Living with cystic fibrosis (CF) and transplanted organs has taught me a great deal about how to successfully travel by air with a chronic illness. While my medical needs look significantly different now than they did before my double-lung transplant six years ago, all of my health…

Like others with chronic illness, many of us with cystic fibrosis (CF) have met someone who has recommended something that would “cure” us of our disease. Someone once told me that some kind of tea would clear out all of my mucus and lung infection. While I appreciated their…

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…

All symptoms aren’t created equal. They can be visible or invisible and range from manageable to unbearable, even debilitating a person for days on end. With cystic fibrosis (CF), symptoms can last a lifetime and affect far more than the lungs. Some even develop into separate diseases, creating…

The thought of having a critically ill child never crossed my mind until it actually happened. I’d hear or see stories about sick children fighting for their lives on television commercials and social media, but I never imagined I’d be that parent. So it was surreal when my 4-year-old daughter,…

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…

Throughout my journey with cystic fibrosis (CF) and double-lung transplant, I’ve learned what does and doesn’t work for me when it comes to receiving support from others. Following are a few guidelines that have been effective for me, and I hope they’ll be useful to you, too, whether…

It’s the coughing. It’s always going to be the coughing with cystic fibrosis (CF). It makes everyone uncomfortable, whether they admit it or not. Everyone who knows me knows I can have a pretty bad cough that can be loud, harsh, and drag on for a long time. It’s…

In my nearly 31 years of life, I’ve watched technology evolve at a rapid pace. Millennials like me have watched cellphones, video games, and computers transform from their rudimentary beginnings into the efficient tools we rely on today. As an adult with cystic fibrosis (CF), I’ve also seen dramatic…

After years in a backstage role at my high school theater, I was pulled aside by the program director and told that, upon researching cystic fibrosis (CF), her staff had deemed my health too unreliable for me to continue working on shows. The confrontation was unexpected. I’d never missed a…