Columns

Fall 2010 I’ll never forget the morning I couldn’t understand what my friends said as we waited for classes to begin. I’ll never forget calling Mom, phone pressed to my right ear, and not understanding what she said, either. Or my heaving sobs as friends…

I’ve noticed that there are two schools of thought in the CF community about discussing our life with a chronic disease. The first: If we expect others to be considerate and respectful of our circumstances, we must educate them about the intricacies of life with CF. The other: It’s not…

Wednesday’s evening air was heavy. It was as if Atlas kneeled and tugged the sky down with him. I drove through the California hills and beaches of Santa Cruz for hours, searching for anything that could relieve my inexplicable despair. While driving, I remembered the month before, when I sat…

I’m a positive guy, I swear it. But I’m exhausted and need a good vent. *** When I pay about $100 per week for prescription medicine, I feel punished for having a genetic defect. I loathe that my body actively tries to murder itself against the…

You’ve somehow found someone to walk through the life that is a cystic fibrosis life without scaring them off. Great! Now, how the heck do you go about planning a wedding that is fun, special, and undamaging to your health? This is a dilemma that I dealt with…

A strange reality of living with cystic fibrosis (CF) is that we’re usually the only person with the disease we actively, directly engage with, aside from maybe siblings. The many aspects of routine CF care — preparing medications for the week, reconstituting antibiotics, Vest treatments, sterilizing nebulizers, IV antibiotic administration,…

BreatheCon is a free online conference hosted by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) for CF patients 18 or older from across the globe to share life experiences, ideas, and encouragement. I have attended this incredible annual event since its inception in 2016. It has been uplifting to…

Friends. Today, my message is simple. Your quality of life matters. Quality of life is integral to physical health Inevitably, you will face trials that require quality of life sacrifices for survival. “Sacrifice” is a carefully chosen word, in the way one might sacrifice a legion to win…

The passionate outpouring following Claire Wineland’s devastating passing last week has exemplified the influence she had on her friends and family, the cystic fibrosis community, and the millions of strangers she inspired. She was incredibly loved and admired — that was so very apparent. I’m sure you can agree…

Winter 2016-17: Sabrina Santos We called each other twins. Sabrina, like me, was a nerdy, faithful, coffee-loving journalist. She also had cystic fibrosis, Mycobacterium abscessus, deafness, and an urgent need for lung transplantation. Unlike me, she was fearless. Sabrina wielded titanic power. Her radiant eyes could shatter…