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Cystic fibrosis can't take living away, especially when one loves 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.

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.

I struggled emotionally after learning that after negative carrier and newborn screens, my son had cystic fibrosis. I’m now advocating for people with rare mutations.

It took an agonizing five months to learn whether my second son had cystic fibrosis. After two inconclusive sweat tests, a DNA test finally gave us the answer.

There are many ways you can support a family with a child or children with cystic fibrosis. Educating yourself about the disease and its treatments and offering to help without being asked are some of the best ways you can show you care.

I had no idea what cystic fibrosis was — or that I had it — until six months of pancreatitis led to a diagnosis.