William Ryan is an adult with cystic fibrosis and cystic fibrosis-related diabetes. William is from Bayonne, New Jersey, a small peninsula city roughly 20 minutes from New York City. Along with being a columnist, he works in local government helping senior citizens, disabled citizens, and veterans. He was diagnosed with CF in early 1993. He has a rare mutation of CF, mostly affecting his digestive system rather than his respiratory system. William and his wife, Gina, have two dogs, Otis and Ruby. He hopes you’ll enjoy reading his columns as much as Otis and Ruby do.
Last weekend, I was at my local pharmacy buying birthday cards when I remembered that I needed to pick up the insulin refill my endocrinologist had ordered the day before. After giving the cashier my name and date of…
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As an adult with cystic fibrosis (CF), I’m part of the majority within the CF community. Whereas this disease was once seen as a childhood illness, scientific advancements have allowed us to grow up, get older, and…
You’re probably aware of the proverb “It takes a village,” which highlights that having a community is necessary for accomplishing tasks or goals or advancing a cause. For people like me who have cystic fibrosis (CF), making progress…
At 31, I still love basketball, and I’ve been a New York Knicks fan for 25 years. For the first 21 years of my fandom, the franchise was a model of instability and getting in its own way. I…
One of the “pleasantries” of life with cystic fibrosis (CF) is navigating cystic fibrosis-related diabetes (CFRD). I’ve been periodically dealing with it since the summer of 2007. For the last two and a half years,…
I sat at the head of the table in my workplace conference room and looked out the window, trying to grasp what I needed to do during my break. The problem was, I couldn’t remember. Instead, I just kept…
I’ve been away for a while, but not because I wanted to be. While I’d love to say I stepped away for something exciting, the only fun I had was seeing the film “Training Day,” starring Denzel…
While scrolling through social media this morning, I learned that the rapper Fat Joe’s eldest son, Joey, is autistic. He wished his son a happy birthday and posted a nice message. The first comment I…
We spend much of life transitioning between roles. Nothing is supposed to last forever, and the time you spend in one role is already preparing you for the next. Aware or not, I’ve been preparing to become an advocate,…
Nana’s husband, my grandfather Bob, passed away a little less than three months before she found herself standing in the maternity ward of a New York hospital. There she stared at her new grandson, hoping and praying that he’d…
When I was in my late teens and early 20s, before I met my wife, I would go anywhere and do anything at a moment’s notice. Staying out until 3 a.m. at a random bar on Manhattan’s Lower East…
Growing up, I hated my birthday. It brought a wave of attention from everyone I knew and, more importantly, made me think about my mortality. People with cystic fibrosis (CF) are all too aware of death and the…
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