Life rarely hands you a predictable roadmap. For me, the journey changed forever the day my oldest son was born. He was constantly sick as an infant and toddler, but for years, doctors brushed off my concerns, telling me it w [...]

I have had cystic fibrosis (CF) my whole life and began in a role as an advocate when I was 15. Around that same time, I was diagnosed with a bacterial lung infection called Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). The two bec [...]

When people hear that I graduated from UC San Diego, they often see the degree as proof that I pushed through. I did work hard, but “pushing through” is not the whole story. I graduated because, at crucial moments, I was not [...]

I am almost as old as cystic fibrosis (CF). That is, Dorothy Anderson initially described CF as mucoviscidosis in 1939, and I came along in 1944. In this way, we are both over 80.  Since early childhood, I have had a pro [...]

In the media worldwide, we know cystic fibrosis (CF) as a fatal lung disease where patients are bound to hospital beds and oxygen masks. While this is true, it doesn’t represent the CF community as a whole. Due to the complex [...]

My journey with cystic fibrosis (CF) has been long and, at times, uncertain. When I was five, I started having recurrent lung problems. My childhood in Chile was shaped by hospitalizations, procedures, and treatment [...]

It’s often said that every person experiences grief differently. For many years, I struggled to come to terms with my CF identity. Writing this blog is an effort for me to achieve the final stage of grief, which is accep [...]

Navigating young adulthood is already a complex journey. Not to mention adding another layer such as growing up with cystic fibrosis, which can make the path feel even more isolating. Growing up with CF, I [...]

As a cystic fibrosis (CF) warrior, I am someone who over the years has been riddled with fear and anxietystemming from medical trauma. I couldn’t realize it sooner because I was in survival mode. I had learnedfrom an early ag [...]

It started like any other routine clinic visit, with the familiar checklist of questions and reminders. One of them was that I was overdue for my next colonoscopy. I already knew that. I just didn’t want to deal wit [...]