Mutations & Conversations – Tré LaRosa

When I was asked to write this column over two years ago, I was thrilled, but I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to write about. I knew I would have some leniency to tackle different subjects, and I didn’t want to be boxed in. But I also wanted to…

I can’t separate my physical malady from my mental diseases. Cystic fibrosis, depression, and anxiety are all linked, and they’re all separate. I think of my blend of comorbidities as a morbid sort of smoothie. I can tell what is going on whenever I don’t feel well, but a…

I used to dislike surveys, polls, and questionnaires. I understood why they existed — customer or patient feedback is important — but I never really saw anything change once I took a survey. I hadn’t considered that perhaps my feedback was unrealistic or didn’t represent the entire community. It wasn’t…

I recently saw a meme in which a person is smiling or laughing in the first panel, then looks utterly dismayed in the second. The second panel’s overlay reads: “Tfw [that feeling when] I realize I’m being perceived by everybody else who ever interacts with me.” This meme is one…

I used to be ashamed about my insecurities. I believed that as a man, I was supposed to be strong. I was supposed to silently hate myself, my appearance, and my body, while projecting an immutable air of confidence. That was the “manly” way. My masculinity, my…

I can’t remember when I first fell in love with science. I loved learning about it and going on field trips, but I didn’t enjoy science fairs because I missed hanging out with my friends (although I did place second at a science fair with some assistance from my dad).

Two years ago, I found myself drinking a cup of coffee in a quiet coffee shop in downtown Chicago. I still struggled to call myself a writer or understand my writing goals. (Though, by this time, I had already been writing for CF News Today for a few months.) I…

Life would be much easier if every complicated disease or disorder weren’t so complicated. COVID-19, cystic fibrosis, depression — if they all manifested uniformly and could be treated the same across the afflicted population, the world would be much simpler. As always, life just isn’t that simple. About two weeks…

I used to scoff at the idea of saving money for retirement. It didn’t seem feasible to me to try to plan decades into the future. I accepted long ago that I wouldn’t live past 40, so why save money for a distant future if it was unlikely I…

A pandemic meets a life-changing medication. It sounds like the beginning of a modern love story. Last year, a film came out about two teenagers with CF who fall in love. If you’ve been even tangentially near the CF community, you’re probably familiar with it. To reclaim…

My last column, a letter to my younger self, was written before the pandemic. When the world first began to realize the havoc wreaked by COVID-19, I predicted I would be reading and writing more than ever. The converse ended up being true. Writing (my consolation) and reading…