Blue-Eyed Breather

If you didn't already know: Thanksgiving is quickly approaching! I think Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Not just for all of the yummy food (which is a definite bonus) or because of the hours of football on TV (which I thoroughly enjoy). No, I love Thanksgiving because it's a holiday intentionally set aside for thinking about the many blessings God has given us. So, this blog is dedicated to giving thanks and being truly grateful. 1. I am thankful that I haven't had any health set backs that have affected my school work since being in college. By the grace of God alone, I am still maintaining a 4.0 GPA. I know it's not the end of the world if my GPA fell a little bit, and no matter what happens these last two semesters, I am grateful for my academic success and give all the credit and glory to God. 2. I am thankful for my friends and family both here at Baylor and around the world. I know that God has used the people who have crossed my path to mold me ...

Part 3 of my CF story In my last blog, I told you that my senior year of high school, I did IV antibiotics for 9 months straight. That 9 months happened to end right before I headed to college. However, within hours of my parents leaving me at college for the first time, I felt a pop in my lungs and started coughing up tissue upon tissue of blood. I had a lung embolization surgery my first Friday of school to try and keep the bleeding from happening again. What a way to start college, am I right? After life got back to normal after the surgery, I slowly began to grow accustomed to taking care of all my medical needs, but it was hard work. I had to figure out how to balance breathing treatments, school, meeting and making friends, social activities, finding a church, getting plugged into a church, and seeing my family. Honestly, I'm still figure out how to balance many of those things. As well, I had to figure out how and when to tell people about my cystic fibrosis. Since I had l...

Part 2: Middle School and High School As many of you know, cystic fibrosis is a progressive disease, meaning it gets worse over time. Therefore, it was to be expected that I would have more problems the older I got. In middle school, I started having more frequent lung infections. I did IV antibiotics much more regularly and began to do them once or twice a year. In 7th grade, I had first experience with CF that truly scared me. I had been on IV antibiotics for almost 5 weeks when I started running an extremely high fever and couldn't stop shaking from chills. My parents rushed me to the hospital, and I was admitted immediately. The doctors had no idea what was wrong with me, but I kept getting weaker and more exhausted. After what seemed like forever, they finally figured out that I was having a drug reaction to one of the medicines I was on. Once they stopped the medicine, I started healing. It was at that point that I realized CF isn't a joke. I could not control how CF af...

I had this thought the other day. I have known different people over different parts in my life, but besides my family, very few people have been with me throughout my entire life and know all the nitty gritty details of my 21 (almost 22) years in existence. Therefore, a lot of people don't know my full CF story. Like I've said in the past, CF is not my identity or the thing that makes me unique compared to other people, but it is a part of me. Maybe it's because my birthday is in a week, but I have this strong desire to look back over my CF journey and reflect on my story. Over the next week, I'm planning on writing several blogs that chronicle my CF life. Stay tuned! Part 1: Birth-Elementary School I was born on November 24, 1992. Mom had been on bed rest because Katie and I were a little troublesome in the womb (meaning we tried to come super early). When Katie and I were born, my parents had no idea that I would have a problem. But, unfortunately, I was born nee...

Yesterday, I got caught up in the game of "if only". Unfortunately, that's not a good place to be. My mom went to a CF update with Dr. Campbell, who is the executive medical director of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Basically, he's a big shot in CF research, and he knows all there is to be known about where research stands. He had a lot of interesting points that were extremely exciting to hear! However, after hearing my mom's summary of Dr. Campbell's talk, I came away thinking, "If only I was born 20 years later". The life expectancy of a baby born with CF today with the current medications, not even with Kalydeco or the other exciting medicines on the horizon that could address the root problem of CF, is 56. That's 20+ years longer than the life expectancy was for a baby born with CF in 1992, the year I was born. The hope is that with the new medications, the life expectancy for a person born with CF will soon be 86, which is basically the s...