I didn’t realize how important my cystic fibrosis care team was — or how they had my back — until I stayed in a hospital where the staff had little knowledge of the needs of people with cystic fibrosis.
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After I had to go on disability to focus on taking care of my health, I got involved with the CF community and volunteered with Community Voice. Little did I know it would help me when I needed it most.
Understanding that I suffered trauma from medical encounters during my childhood helped make me a more effective self-advocate as an adult.
Although I had heard of cystic fibrosis, I never knew anything about the disease until a chance meeting with a member of the CF community during a networking event. Since then, I have provided donations to CF events and am in awe of the determination and attitude that people with CF have about life.
I always say that when life gives you lemons … turn around and write some Japanese-style poetry. I hope you enjoy these haikus I have written about life with cystic fibrosis.
My feisty, athletic nature has gotten me through two double-lung transplants. Although my active lifestyle is different than before, I have embraced brand-new competitive pursuits that have helped me develop the mental fortitude to overcome medical adversity.
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.