Living long enough to need medication for high cholesterol

For most of my life, food was medicine.

Living with cystic fibrosis (CF) and pancreatic insufficiency meant my body didn’t absorb fat the way it should. Because of that, I also didn’t properly absorb fat-soluble vitamins. From childhood, I was taught to eat more: bigger portions, double helpings, high-fat, and high-calorie everything. Eating was part of my treatment plan. It was as routine as any other part of managing CF. I never questioned it. For decades, I had no reason to.

As my lung function declined, the equation changed. My heart and lungs were working overtime to keep me breathing, and that effort burned calories faster than I could replace them. I lost a lot of weight, especially once I became oxygen-dependent and spent 21 months on the transplant list waiting for a call.

During that time, eating was a fight. Every calorie counted, and keeping my weight up was urgent. Yet eating too much at once made it more difficult to breathe.

“Eat more” wasn’t just a habit anymore. It was survival.

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Now, I’m six years past my double-lung transplant. Recovery is behind me, and I’m living a life I wasn’t sure I’d ever see. Breathing is easier right now, so it no longer burns extra energy. But my eating habits didn’t get the memo.

I’m still eating the way I always have: big portions and high-calorie meals with plenty of fat. The difference is that my body isn’t working overtime to burn it off anymore.

Slowly, my clothing size has gone up. It’s not dramatic, but it’s the kind of thing you can’t ignore when your pants stop buttoning the way they used to.

But the weight is only part of the story.

Ordinary problems feel like a luxury

Put together my increased weight, my age (55), and a lifetime of high-fat eating, and I now find myself staring down the barrel of elevated cholesterol. That means having to consider adding a statin to an already long medication regimen.

For someone who spent a lifetime being told to eat more fat, that’s a strange sentence to write. The same diet that once helped keep me alive is now showing up in my blood work.

Another medication joins the regimen, and with it comes a reminder: The way I ate for survival isn’t necessarily the way I can eat for the long haul.

I want to be clear: I’m not saying I need to go on a diet. After years of being told to eat more, restricting food feels almost wrong. What I’m talking about is awareness.

I’m learning to pay attention to portion sizes in a way I never had to do before. I’m thinking about what goes on my plate, not just how much.

It’s as much a mental shift as a physical one. For years, a clean plate meant I was doing my job. Now I’m learning to stop and ask whether I’m still hungry, and whether this meal is feeding my body or I’m simply following an old script.

I’m not complaining. I’m a little amazed to be writing about this. There was a time when my biggest concern was keeping weight on. Having extra weight to manage would have seemed like a luxury. And in a way, it is.

Even the cholesterol and the statin are signs of a life lasting long enough to need them. They’re ordinary problems of getting older, and I wasn’t sure I’d get to have those.

It’s an interesting point in my CF and transplant journey — one more chapter I never expected to write. Living with CF is a never-ending journey, forcing us to adapt. Living beyond it means adapting again.

Note: Cystic Fibrosis News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Cystic Fibrosis News Today or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to cystic fibrosis.