This is me, at age 3, the day I went into Children’s Hospital Boston to get diagnosed with CF. I had an awful cough as a kid, and I was tiny for my age. So we went to get tested for CF. My first memory as a kid is the sweat test. I remember it feeling like my arm was being electrocuted and crying the whole time. I had no idea what this was for. I had no idea what cystic fibrosis was! I just thought I got to take my dolls on an adventure into boston, and I got to see the big Whale mural that we drove by on the highway. But the sweat test said I had CF. And that was the day our family’s life changed forever.
We were already dealing with the fact that my brother had brought home lice from school, and of course the whole family got it when we had our weekly TGIF tv night watching our favorite ABC sitcoms on mom’s bed. It was around christmas, and my mom said she wouldn’t come to christmas at my grandmother’s house, cause she didn’t want to spread the lice, and she was so shocked by the recent news. But our family told her we needed them at this time, they were our family. So we came, all my cousins had their hair in tight pony tails, and I had no idea that everyone was so solemn. I was just an innocent kid, I had no idea what the world of CF had to offer then. I just knew I had to take gross pills that were too big to swallow with all my meals (I used to have to chew the enzyme balls inside the capsule). I knew that I got to go to the doctor and get a toy from the gift shop every few months. CF was nothing out of the ordinary for me, I knew it ever since I can remember. I never had time to get scared about it. It was a part of my life and I lived with it the best I could. From that day on, it was my parents’ mission to do everything they could to keep me healthy. And now that I’m older, it’s my mission to do everything I can to keep myself healthy.
