The opportunity to allow people to think I’m using cystic fibrosis as a crutch is the main reason I don’t let people into that area of my life too early. I discussed the topic of when to tell others a while back, and while I have decreased my incubation period significantly since starting this site, the principle remains in effect for a large part.

The words found below do not apply to CFers who are home-bound, hospital-bound, or confined to their bed until a transplant donor can be found. They have our utmost respect and compassion. I will be very thorough in my explanations to avoid any ill feelings, as this is a reflective, introspective topic for discussion.

I have lived two separate lives, each of which has been made up of various compartments. I believe that compartments are a highly effective method of coping and thriving with a chronic disease that can not only cause suffering conditions, but death at a progressive rate from normal life-expectancy averages. Before I move on, I want to be clear about this point as well: suffering conditions does not mean that each CFer is forced to live a life of suffering, as we discussed recently. If you’re too busy to read it now, the summary sentence is: “we don’t suffer from CF, we thrive despite it.”

One life: before I “had” CF

It wasn’t much more than a year ago that I didn’t “have” CF. That life consisted of two CF-related compartments:
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