A Day in the Life

Cystic Fibrosis is embedded with ambiguity and misunderstanding. The myths and misinformation that surround the disease are abundant. As a CF patient I try my best to misspell these half-truths. In this post, I thought I would take a moment to share some of the ways that CF impacts my day-to-day life.

Most students roll out of bed with just enough time to make it to class. I, on the other hand, have been forced to adopt a more demanding morning routine. Every day, I am up at 6:00 a.m. to begin my daily battle with cystic fibrosis.

Each morning I awaken to a harsh reality. After 6 or 7 hours of sedentary inactivity, my lungs are almost always filled with a thick lining of mucus that makes it very difficult for me to breathe. This discomfort is one that every CF patient knows all too well.

I begin and end my day with 60 minutes of treatments: 30 minutes of PEP (positive expiratory pressure) mask therapy, a form of chest physiotherapy to help loosen the mucus in my lungs, and 30 minutes of inhaled medications through a nebulizer. Luckily for me, I am able to perform half of this therapy while in the car while on my way to school.

In addition to physiotherapy, I take pancreatic enzymes with every meal and snack to help me digest and absorb the nutrients in food. These, along with the many oral antibiotics and steroids that I must take, bring my total ingestion of pills to about 30 a day. Not to mention the variety of puffers I use in the morning and evening to help keep my airways open.

In total, my CF regime consumes between 2 – 3 hours of each day. Needless to say, as a CF patient you learn to prioritize and manage your time effectively.

The treatment protocol is certainly both strenuous and time consuming; however, it is a necessity, not an option. As a 23-year-old, I have come to accept that I owe my life to the medical treatments that I have received, and continue to receive on a daily basis. Quite frankly, fighting CF is a gigantic pain in my ass, but it is that fight that will keep me alive until the day that a cure is found.