I recently was diagnosed with a type of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which helps explain why I sometimes didn’t keep up with daily care. By taking ADHD into account, I’m managing my cystic fibrosis better.
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My path to a total colectomy was long and challenging. Now I want to share what I learned about self-advocating for necessary medical care and coping with a surgically created opening on my abdomen called a stoma.
I have faced numerous health challenges in my life, including a recent diagnosis of osteopenia. Despite this, I am resilient, grateful, and determined to take care of myself while finding strength in the cystic fibrosis community.
Advances in cystic fibrosis care have been life-changing for me, and I’m grateful to breathe easier with a CFTR modulator. However, I began to experience new issues in the past few years, and I am left wondering if it’s a side effect of the CFTR modulator or something else.
Being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis-related diabetes shortly after a lung transplant was difficult. But, working with my doctor helped me create a strategy to make it easier.
I underwent liver and kidney transplants in 2021 after a successful lung transplant in 2012. For a number of reasons, the recovery from second transplant was much more difficult.
After two kidney transplants and one double-lung transplant, I am currently doing dialysis treatments as I wait for my third kidney transplant. Keeping a positive attitude and having friends and colleagues who support me have helped me adjust to life on dialysis.
Because my daughter's bowel perforated when she was a newborn, she needed to have surgery to temporarily reroute her stool so that it was collected through her abdomen into an ostomy bag. Those grueling days of ostomy care -- sometimes as often as every hour day and night -- were some of the darkest days of our cystic fibrosis journey.
I struggled when I learned that in addition to cystic fibrosis, my daughter also had adrenal insufficiency. I felt anger, sadness, and anxiety. But thankfully, with the support of my husband, family, friends, and care team, we learned how to manage her condition and deal with emergencies.
It took a lot of self-advocacy — and a lot of medical testing — before I received a diagnosis of CFTR-related disorder. Fortunately, my parents supported me as I went from specialist to specialist and finally got my diagnosis.