THRU MY EYES

         So..this is my new blog!:) My name is Geneva and I'm 26 years old living my life with the ups and downs of having Cystic Fibrosis. I live in Mesa, Arizona and I have for about 3 years now. Best decision I ever made..moving out of the midwest...because not having to shovel snow off of your car in the morning and walking outside without your eyes freezing shut makes it alllll worth it! LOL!
             I wanted to start a blog because of something my fiance, Marc, said to me one night in bed before we went to sleep. He said, "Geneva, remember when you read all those blogs while you were going through your transplant? And remember how much they helped you? Well I think you should do that so you can help other people in the same situation." Well, not in those EXACT words, but thanks anyways babe.;) It is true though, it did help me tremendously! Reading about others with CF, lung transplants, and everything in between really gave me some different perspectives.
              It's kinda funny, but not really..but if you have cf you've prob had at least one person ask you.."how did you catch that??"..ha ha, so there goes to show you how many people are extremely uneducated on the subject.  I'm a firm believer in CF awareness, and anything that has to do with helping support the research and funding for a cure for CF. It 's very important to me:)
             CF is a genetic disorder that you are BORN with, you cannot "catch" it from anyone or anything! LOL.  But the severity of it can differ from person to person. People inherit 2 faulty CF genes-one from each of the parents. The basic overview of the disease (for peeps who have no clue) is that everyone has mucus that lines the organs to basically protect them from infection and to keep them moist.  We have that mucus but the problem is that ours in extra thick and sticky. It builds up, blocking airways in the lungs and ducts in other organs and this causes serious infections to grow over and over again creating severe lung damage and other organs to possibly fail.  It also keeps the pancreas from producing the digestive enzyme that is sent to your small intestines to help you break down food.  Therefore, we are unable to absorb all the nutrients required from the food we eat so we can grow and gain weight.  This results in vitamin deficiency and malnutrition. Also, becoming diabetic is pretty much to be expected because the pancreas can no longer make insulin we need to bring your blood sugar down. Your body also loses a great amount of salt.
               That's pretty much CF in a nutshell, (and I know I missing a lot of important info) but I don't have time to touch EVERYTHING that Cystic Fibrosis touches.  I'm just not that good.  Ha ha!
                But most of my life has been pretty easy regarding CF, I could function pretty much like any regular kid.  Except for treatments and occasional hospitalizations, nothing really held me back.  It wasn't until my senior/junior years in high school when I started to get noticeably sick, when my health started to interfere with my attendance at school on a regular basis and missing out on social events and such.  
                 Relationships with people can be trying a lot of the time, unlike most "normal" people, getting attached to someone with CF can mean losing them just as quick.  It was always one of the hardest things for me to tell people I had a life threatening illness because A) I didn't want peeps constantly feeling sorry for me and treating me different from any other normal kid, B) I didn't want peeps to be turned away right after I told them because they "couldn't deal" with something like that, C) I thought is was kind of selfish to let someone get attached to me and maybe even falling in love with me if I was just going to end up dying, D) If you don't have the disease its very, very difficult to understand, unless you see first hand, just how difficult and expensive and stressful it is to live with CF.
                   Those are things that people, not just with cf, but with other diseases struggle with everyday.  But I had to understand that my life was worth living even though it may not be as long or the same as other "normal" people.  That I was worth loving and giving others love, and having friendships and just the regular things that life has to offer.

                              That's all 4 now:) Bye!