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 [...]

After getting out of a long-term committed relationship (almost 10 years), dating was the last thing on my mind. Instead, I went through intense therapy to find out who I was and to learn how to love myself, th [...]

Growing up, I used to say, “One thing I never want to die without doing is skydiving.” It felt like a far-off dream; the one big adventure I believed would be enough, because growing up in sickness taught me no [...]