I gravitated toward a career in health care almost without thinking about it. It has been rewarding, but it has cost me too.
Site Search
When I decided to study abroad in 1974, I also decided that I would not allow CF to stop me from living my life to the fullest.
My oldest son, Nathan, was 18 years old when he was finally diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. While we both had been waiting a long time to get an answer to what had been plaguing him, I'd been hoping and praying that he'd escape the CF sentence. The diagnosis, however, did not come as a surprise because exactly 35 days earlier, my younger son, Caleb, at 14 years, had already been diagnosed with CF.
When I was 13, my family went from having two seemingly normal kids to two CF patients in a manner of a few short months -- and boy, did it change everything. Because of my late diagnosis, I faced a unique set of challenges that helped make me the strong person I am today.
As a teacher with cystic fibrosis, I find it no surprise that heading back to school can be a shock to my system. But over the years, I've learned that if I can remember three main things, I can stay healthy through the transition back to school.
Cystic fibrosis can't take living away, especially when one loves life!
When I ran into a particularly difficult situation with my last job, the “d” word entered my lexicon for the first time: disability. While my life doesn't look like I thought it would, I have come to accept where I am and gained a new perspective on work and life.
I knew that I needed to make a change when I began checking on home from the office and checking on work at odd hours from home.
While I am not grateful for having cystic fibrosis and cystic fibrosis-related diabetes, I have no doubt that if it weren't for me having CF, I would not have become the person that I am today.
All my life I wanted an answer to why I was so sick. Then I got it, in the form of a CF diagnosis.