You have your pharmacist, family doctor, CF doctor, the emergency room that you always use and your medical insurance company on your cell phone's speed dial.
You have multiple scars from PICC lines, IV's and other 'experimentations' as the doctors like to call them.
You flip out when someone has an open cut, puts peroxide on it and then blows on the peroxide because it stings--- HELLO—germs are in your mouth too!!
You get equally annoyed when someone lays a towel on that open cut and states- but it's a clean towel—did you disinfect it? NO!
You have antibacterial gel in your purse, in your car, on the kitchen counter, in the bathroom, in your friend's dorm, their car—hell everywhere!
You can smell smoke hundreds of feet away and go searching for the source so you can thump them upside their heads!
You quite adamantly think that smokers are some of the dumbest people you know—Love it when they walk up a flight of stairs huffing and then say they NEED a cigarette! WHAT?!
You laugh at those who bitch and moan from a common cold or worse yet stay home because of it!
You can instruct the nurses how to work the IV machine at the hospital.
You get more “tune ups” than your car.
You have also learned who your real friends are because most people can't take the pressure of being around a person who has CF.
You make people wince on a daily basis because of the sound of your cough.
The checkout lady at Wal-Mart has confidently told you that she just got over that cold and Theraflu worked for her, which you calmly and sarcastically say—I will make sure to tell my doctors.
When you cough people say lay off the cigarettes and you are not sure if you want to laugh it off or punch them.
You can sleep through anything—you perfected the skill by being shaken by your vest all of these years.
You are a multi-tasker by need. While doing you're vest you MUST eat breakfast, do your nebulizers, homework, make-up, straighten your hair and have a conversation with your mother about your most current ache in your chest all at once or it would never get done.
You have so many random unexplained pains you learn to sleep them off before worrying.
You learn by the age of 15 that life is a gift and most people don't see it!
You have used your vest multiple times as a torment device for your dog by blowing air at him and watching him try to catch it in his mouth; an entertainment device for the kids because a shaking vest is a fun 'toy' and a laughing tool for the adults when you try to talk to keep up with the conversation, even on the maximum setting.
You really did have a midlife crisis at the age of 18—What the hell do I do now? I wasn't suppose to make it this far!
If Albuterol and Xopenex were living things you would marry them because according to you they were sent from heaven by God to us CFers for a little help in the breathing department.
You have a stash of Cipro in your medicine cabinet.
You laugh at your friends and their newest drama—hah! Don't we all wish it was THAT easy!
You get truly pissed at people who don't put yes as organ donors on their driver's license—what the hell are you going to do with them when you're dead, huh?!
You feel as if there is ALWAYS someone worse off than you somewhere.
You are constantly on the go, realizing that time stands still for no one.
You time your coughs during gun fights and loud music at the cinema.
Your friends and family can identify you in any major shopping center by the sound of your cough.
When babysitting and you give the child something to eat you feel like there is something missing. Then you realize “Oh yeah we’re good, they don’t need enzymes.”
You are more scared of losing your loved ones, family and friends then you are of dying yourself.
You realize at an extremely young age that you can buy everything but time and as a CFer that is the one thing you would love to have!
Some of you will understand it all but most won't-- this is mostly for all the CFer's out there living and working each day to breathe....
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