Author: Lauren

How my parents got me to take control of my health

Growing up with cystic fibrosis, or any chronic illness, requires an immense amount of responsibility at an early age. And when I was a kid, the only thing I wanted to be responsible for was the remote control so that I could watch Disney and Nickelodeon cartoons. I had my techniques for cutting short my treatment time. The vest machine I used to shake the mucus out of my lungs, had a timer on it, similar to an egg timer. If I turned it ever so slightly,  I could cut off a minute or two when I was tired of...

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Is spring ever coming?

It’s been raining in Boston for what feels like months. This time of the year, people start to get pretty frustrated, and you start to notice a lot more honking on your commute to work, as people start to get so sick of the bad weather. No one looks forward to a rainy day around here. We grumble and gripe and complain that spring never seems to come in New England.  But today, for the first time in what felt like a month, it was sunny, and a whopping 45 degrees. Woo hoo! Kyle and I went out to...

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Why a positive attitude won’t cure you

Being happy-go-lucky is a cornerstone of my personality. When I was younger, and heard about people with cystic fibrosis, or other deadly illnesses, I didn’t see myself in them. I knew the life expectancy of cf was in the 30’s, and even though that scared the poop out of me, and made me pretty worried, I didn’t actually believe that would hold true for me. And if by some chance it did, I figured I would squeeze as much living into those thirty-something years as possible so that I wouldn’t be disappointed in my early demise. Some would call this...

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