Let’s Talk About Death and Grief
I consider myself a conversation-starter. I like discussing serious topics and sharing my genuine feelings and thoughts with others. I enjoy talking about sports, engaging in light banter, and dissecting the plots…
Mutations & Conversations
— Tré LaRosa
Tré LaRosa is a scientific project manager, patient advocate, and writer. He has cystic fibrosis (CF) and carries two copies of the F508del mutation. He’s been on Trikafta since 2019. He writes about science, living with CF, grief, family, and everything in between in an effort to get you thinking about what it means to be human. He lives in Arlington, Virginia with his fiancée Jessica and their two wonderful, lazy dogs, Duncan and Leo. He enjoys playing sports, being outdoors, and reading — and especially buying more books.
Featured Post
What is self-disclosure, and would it benefit me?
Throughout my life, I’ve felt comfortable self-disclosing to schools and employers that I have cystic fibrosis (CF). Self-disclosure — defined as “the sharing of personal information with others that they would not normally…
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I See Poetry in the Scientific Process
I walk two paths: One is that of logic in my career as a scientist. In this field, it’s critical to remove emotion from the picture as much as possible. I work…
The Power of Escapism
One of the first fiction books I read in adulthood was a book called “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” by Michael Chabon. The story of how I came across…
CF Science Is Unexpectedly Beautiful
During my sophomore year of college, the background on my computer screen was a cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein, specifically a visualization of its quaternary structure. It looked something like…
CF Forces Me to Have a Different Long-term Outlook
In high school, I aspired to be a pulmonologist for obvious reasons: I wanted to aid the CF community by directly helping patients. It seemed logical. I dreamed of becoming a pulmonologist…
My Family Had 2 Children with CF
It was unlikely that my parents would bear two children with CF. When both parents carry a CF mutation but don’t have the disease itself, there is a 1 in 4 chance…
My Thoughts on Exercise and CF
It’s hard to understate the benefits of exercise for healthy people, let alone people with CF. According to the Mayo Clinic, some of these benefits include: It controls weight. It combats health…
The Burden of Care in the Life of a CF Patient
A couple of months ago, I did back-of-the-envelope calculations on basic CF stats. Here’s what I asked: In a year, how much time do I spend doing treatments? How many pills do…
The Diverse Spectrum of Health Across the CF Community
If you’ve ever met more than one person with cystic fibrosis, it’s likely they had very different experiences than you. First, their approach likely will be different; chronic disease affects everyone differently mentally, so…
Let’s Use the Cystic Fibrosis News Today Forums for Empowerment
I ecstatically joined Cystic Fibrosis News Today in September because it was my first major opportunity to generate CF discussion. In this column, I’ve written about what a cure might actually mean for…
Empowering Children by Educating Them About Their CF
One of my earliest memories from elementary school was leaving class a little early before lunch to go to the nurse’s office to take my enzymes, always accompanied by a school peer. I wasn’t…
How Should We Approach Milestones While Grieving?
When Serena Lawrence, the late Bionews senior columns editor, responded to my email about potentially writing for Cystic Fibrosis News Today and promptly offered me a columnist position, I was awestruck. This was…
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