Victorious - a Column by Brad Dell

I was repulsed by my body. My arms were scarred and barren of muscle, thin as twigs. They hung from a bumpy, pale torso — bumpy from the ribs that protruded, the port-a-cath that sat beneath pockmarked skin, and the rubber feeding tube above my belly button.

Gaining weight can be just as difficult as maintaining lung function for many with cystic fibrosis. Most have heard people without CF joke that they wish they had our problem with gaining weight. But for those who experience the struggle of malnourishment and unstable weight, we know…

I’ve seen videos of people with cystic fibrosis, messaged other patients on the internet, and knew some as a child. But since the early years I barely have any memory of, I haven’t verbally spoken with a CFer. I had a phone interview today. The interviewer kept…

I crawled into my closet and pulled out a dusty, battered Ultimate X-Men: Vol. 1. Sunray slivers peeked through the slightly-ajar door, lighting sections of the comic book as I read beneath my jackets on their hangers. I was in 10th grade and had just lost the…

Twenty-four years of living with cystic fibrosis allows for a plethora of learning lessons — mostly through mistakes I’ve made. There are many things I wish I had done differently regarding my health to improve the effectiveness of my treatment. If I knew then what I know…

Many label their lives with cystic fibrosis a “battle.” I prefer “war.”* There’s the daily grind: The clinic visits are strategic meetings. The treatments are patrols. The two-week antibiotic courses are skirmishes. Then there are the defining moments of the war — the brutal flare-ups when bacteria or…

In ancient home videos of the Dell family, there’s shot after shot of my sister Shelby clinging to me tightly while I cringe. That was a good illustration of our relationship, until recently. I was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis a few months after…

I’d been anticipating my bilateral cochlear implant surgery for more than a year. I knew it required some drilling into my skull, cuts behind the ear, and having devices shoved into my cochlea. I did not expect to be restricted to Tylenol…

Only 61.8 percent of cystic fibrosis patients comply with their daily respiratory medication and 41.2 percent comply with physiotherapy plans, according to a 2008 study. I’ve observed that most patients and their parents want to be perfectly compliant — they just haven’t formed good strategies for…

You’ll meet legions of doctors throughout your life with cystic fibrosis. You’ll encounter doctors you adore and who will save your life countless times. And you’ll encounter some who make life a nightmare. Here are six “characters” you’re bound to meet, plus things they’re likely to say, at…