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.
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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.
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.
Having an atypical presentation of CF means I stand somewhere between the CF world and the rest of the world — and that makes me feel like I belong in neither.
In comments provided to the U.S.
CF Foundation provides comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services responding to the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, focusing on improving access to care through telehealth.
Partnership to Protect Coverage provides comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Treasury Department, and the Department of Labor on a proposed rule concerning short-term, limited-duration insurance plans.
Partnership to Protect Coverage response to request for information issued by the Treasury Department, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Department of Health and Human Services on medical credit cards, loans, and other financial products used to pay for health care that may contribute to medical debt.
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Cystic Fibrosis Therapeutics Network sent a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research to request a meeting to discuss novel approaches to clinical trial design for cystic fibrosis nucleic acid-based therapies.