Substance misuse is the use of alcohol, illegal drugs, or over-the-counter or prescription medications in a way that they are not meant to be used. Over time, substance misuse can become an unhealthy way to respond to stress and anxiety, particularly when managing a chronic illness like cystic fibrosis.
Site Search
Procedural anxiety is the fear or worry related to any medical procedure that can interfere with your ability to receive appropriate medical care. You can partner with your cystic fibrosis care team to find ways to manage this common anxiety.
There is no greater instinct than a mother's need to protect, and I have had to willfully disregard it countless times in my journey with CF.
As a hospital administrator, I try to apply what I've learned from receiving care as a person with CF to provide better health care for my patients.
Hospital stays are hardly a party. But since they're a part of life with CF, let's get the most out of them and help ourselves make them fewer and farther between.
A few years ago, CF started to take its toll on me. I kept getting sick, going on and off IVs, going in and out of the hospital. But through it all, I found a silver lining.
When I was young, my parents tried to increase the appeal of hospital stays by calling them “sleepovers.” But as I got older, I realized that these two things are, in fact, not the same.
The only thing that is certain in my life is the uncertainty of my teenage daughter's next hospital stay. Despite this, she has somehow managed to supervise her own academic life from a hospital room.
I’ve learned that paying too much attention to the idealized lives of people on social media can give me a skewed vision of my own.
At age 5, my daughter started to feel the traumatic emotional effects of cystic fibrosis. Fortunately, the care center’s social worker helped her find a healthy path through it.