CF strips away the stuff I love to do – the simple actions of life healthier people take for granted.  Here’s my “most missed” list:

• Sleeping flat on a bed, which I haven’t done for 5 or 6 years because of hemoptysis and GERD.
• Playing paddle tennis at Venice Beach.
• Walking up stairs and hills without worrying about coughing up blood.
• Riding a bike fast and up hills.
• Not thinking about cf, though I don’t remember when that was, if ever.  Maybe, I mean to say that I miss thinking about cf less than I do now.
• Lifting heavy weights in the gym.
• Doing fewer treatments each day.
• Being able to carry my daughter.
• Skiing.
• Feeling well more often.

There are probably others, but these seem to matter the most.  One other item I left off the list is adult and has to do with my wife.

Every day some of my co-workers cry and moan about the most inane issues. I feel like grabbing them by the shoulders, staring them in the eye and saying: You don’t know how lucky you are.  You simply do not know how lucky you are.