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If you saw me in the street you would think that I'm an ordinary person.
Looking at me from the outside you would not know that I'm
living with Cystic Fibrosis. Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic
disease that I was born with. Usually CF is detected at
birth, unfortunately the
doctors didn't catch it right away, therefore I wasn't diagnosed
until the age of 9. Every day there are new obstacles to
overcome. There is a lot I have to deal with each day such as my
(1) treatments, (2) the hospital, and the (3) symptoms and other
diseases that come along with CF. Knowing that I have a chronic
disease, I have realized that I have to revolve my life around
CF and let nature take its course. First thing everyday I have
to make sure I'm up early enough to get my treatments finished.
Then I set aside time to do all of my treatments that fit in
with everything that goes on during the day, I try and do them
during the same time period each day, just to make it a little
easier on myself. My daily treatments consist of taking many
pills, the vest machine, and nebulizers multiple times a day.
The great thing about doing my treatments is knowing that I'm
doing my part in trying to keep myself feeling good and staying
out of the hospital. Not only do I have to worry about getting
my treatments done I also have to worry about going to the
hospital. Despite doing my treatments everyday I still get sick
very, very easily. And usually when I get sick I am admitted to
the hospital to receive IV antibiotics. As soon as I do I have
to try and catch up on school work, which isn't always easy
because there's just so much at one time and I feel overwhelmed.
I know that doing school work and doing my treatments will only
benefit me later in life, so I have to stick to it. In the
meantime I'm doing everything the doctors say, so I can get out
of the hospital as soon as possible. Finally I have to deal with
the symptoms and other diseases that come along with Cystic
Fibrosis. For example things that I already have or will likely
get when I get older are, hearing loss, diabetes, arthritis,
weight loss, sinus infections, and BAD LUNGS.
*
So
not only do I have to do my nebulizers, vest machine, and take a
countless amount of pills for my basic CF, I also have to do
other treatments for the other symptoms and diseases to stay
healthy. For my hearing loss I have to wear hearing aids. To
help prevent Diabetes I have to eat healthy which is extremely
hard because people with CF are normally on a high calorie, high
protein and fatty diet. Arthritis is hard to prevent, but I do
stretches to help. For the weight loss part I try and eat as
much as possible. To treat my sinus infections I have to use
nasal sprays. Last but not least, to help keep my lungs healthy
I have to get lots and lots of exercise. This won't last for to
long because each year my CF progresses, which will eventually
lead me to receive a double lung transplant. After being put
through countless operations and procedures to help me stay
healthy from these symptoms and diseases, I feel like I'm the
ultimate Iron Man and can survive anything.
*
So I stare Cystic
Fibrosis in the face and say BRING
IT, to whatever else it has
in store for me. Obviously I'm not the only person in the world
with a disease so to everyone else out there with a disease
whether its Cystic Fibrosis or not, I give you major props for
dealing with it and not giving up. Its tough dealing with
everyday life, I have to put up with my treatments, the
hospital, and everything that comes along with CF. Something
that makes life a little bit easier is having my family there by
my side helping and supporting me in this journey that I travel.
Knowing that I have a chronic disease such as Cystic Fibrosis, I
have realized that I have to revolve my life around CF and let
nature take its course. So even with this disease, I'm living
life to its fullest, and living each day like its my last.
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