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I’ve been single for a year now, and I’m darn proud of it. I didn’t think I could do it, and I’ve grown so much because of it. From ages 17 to 24, I was with a wonderful person. It was us against the destructive titan, cystic fibrosis.

Speaking as a writer: Words wield heavy power. Our written and spoken words are capable of mightiness. They can impart life-changing wisdom or inflict pain, whether intentionally or unintentionally. I feel I must be transparent about life with cystic fibrosis so that I can use my experiences to share learned…

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…