Navigating seasonal changes and infection control following transplant

It’s only mid-August, and already the stores are stacked with Halloween decorations. Every year, this catches me off guard, and I find myself a little annoyed by it.

I’m not ready to rush through summer. I love the warmth of the sun on my skin, the feeling of fresh air moving through open windows, and the way the daylight lingers into the evening. Summer, for me, is a season of ease.

I do love the fall, with its sweaters, slower pace, and colored leaves. But it comes with something I’ve never liked: the start of cold and flu season.

For those of us living with cystic fibrosis (CF), that means more than pumpkin spice and sniffles. It’s the beginning of what I’ve come to think of as winter hibernation from germs — a season-long effort to protect lungs that don’t have room for error.

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CF is genetic, so infection control has been part of my life from the very beginning. But it wasn’t until my health began to decline as an adult that I truly understood how critical those practices are, and how much discipline they require.

Hand hygiene became a ritual for me, not a suggestion. I kept hand sanitizer in my car and my purse for the moments I couldn’t get to a sink, and I washed my hands the second I walked through the front door. I cleaned my phone with bleach wipes, because a phone screen picks up everything a hand touches. I wore an N95 mask in the CF clinic and in hospital settings long before the rest of the world knew what N95s were. And when friends had colds, I loved them from a distance until they felt better.

In September 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and before any vaccine for it existed, I received a double-lung transplant. It’s strange to think about now, being immunosuppressed on purpose and by design while the entire world was learning to fear a virus for the first time. I had spent my whole life protecting damaged lungs. Now I was protecting borrowed ones.

People sometimes assume that once you’re on the other side of transplant, infection-control rules ease up. In some ways, that’s true — I’m no longer managing CF-specific concerns like cross-infection risks between fellow CF patients. But immunosuppression brings its own version of the same vigilance, just with different reasoning behind it. My lowered immune system means a common cold, the flu, COVID-19, or any number of ordinary viruses can turn into something serious very quickly.

So I still wear an N95 in most indoor public spaces during cold and flu season. I still carry hand sanitizer and use it until I can wash properly. I still wipe down my phone. I still ask friends and family whether they’re up to date on their vaccines, and I ask them, gently but seriously, to let me know if they’re feeling under the weather before we make plans. That way we can reschedule instead of taking a risk neither of us needs to take.

For me, “just a cold” was never just a cold. It can mean two weeks of intravenous antibiotics, hospitalization, and now, post-transplant, it can mean the possibility of damage or rejection to the very lungs that gave me my life back.

If there’s one thing I want people to understand — whether they’re living with CF, waiting for transplant, or years past it like me — it’s this: Infection control isn’t something you graduate from. Transplant changes a lot, including lung function, energy, and the future. But the discipline of protecting oneself from infection isn’t something that goes away. If anything, it becomes even more important, because now there’s a gift involved that isn’t only mine to protect.

So, yes, it’s only August, and the Halloween candy is already on the shelves. But for me, the real seasonal shift isn’t about costumes or pumpkin spice lattes. It’s about masks, hand sanitizer, and the quiet, constant work of staying well — work I did before transplant and still do now.

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.