Okay as it is, I've got some time to kill now, so let me see if I can answer your questions without rambling on for 100 pages. CF limits my activities, yes. I was able to run or jog for several years growing up, but I can't really do it anymore. I can't even do stairs or steep hills without getting pretty winded and coughing. I don't do sports or anything, but I never really wanted to anyway. There are a few things that CF limits me in that really annoy me. One is walking too much. I walk to and from every day that I have class, and it gets really tiring. By the time I sit down in class, I need to cough for 5 minutes, and it interrupts the lessons. Real obnoxious. Two is laughing. I very rarely have a good laugh anymore without it quickly morphing into a coughing fit.
How others react to my CF... Hmm. People that know me and care about me don't much mind it. That's not to say they don't care that I have CF, but that they don't discriminate or shun me for it. They know about it, support me and help me if/when they can, but still don't make a big deal out of it. People that don't know are generally the people that make me want to start punching strangers. People that hear me cough and assume. Not even just assuming, because people that assume I have a cold and ask if I'm okay, that gets a little old, but it doesn't bother me. It's the people that assume and are extremely rude about it. Those people I'm rude right back to. If they don't give me a chance, I won't give them a chance. Teachers don't seem to care much. They each get letters from the DRC at my school (Disability Resource Center) explaining why I cough and basically, to just ignore it. My teachers are used to me and just talk over me, or repeat if I cough particularly loud when they say something. They don't ask if I need water, they know if I need something I will just get up and get it myself. The classmates I have are generally fine with it. The ones that don't know are usually nice about it, they'll ask if I need water or a cough drop and I just say no thanks. However, because my major is a very small group, most of the girls in my ASL (American Sign Language -- my major) classes know about it. They ignore me altogether now, just like the teachers. Employers, for the most part, don't care. But I've never had a fulltime job, so I don't know. I got fired from a job once for going into the hospital for 4 days for IV meds, but you're always going to run into some stupid people along the way.
This past summer, I worked at the American School for the Deaf, and those people were very nice about my "special needs." The first week and a half of that job, I worked while on IV meds. I explained it to the adults I worked with, and they just ignored it. The kids (roughly 10 years old) tended to ask what it is, but it was never in a teasing manner, at least not to my knowledge. They asked because they were curious. Because this is a school for the Deaf and some deafness is caused by other illnesses, the people there are pretty used to illness. One boy in my morning class was on oxygen 24/7 so him and I talked about some of the lung aspects of things, I think it may have been helpful or fun to him to see another person with lung troubles so much older than he was. He was in worse condition than I, and didn't have CF, but all the same. Anyway, as I was saying, the people there were used to illness, so when I couldn't swim in the afternoons (I was supposed to swim with the kids) becuase I was on IVs, they didn't care. When I needed to take an early day to go to a clinic appointment, as long as I told them at least a day ahead so they could get someone to cover me, they didn't care. If I needed a bathroom break, they didn't care. I think they may have been more understanding than most becuase they deal with chronic illness on a regular basis because of some of the kids. But either way, the people at that job were wonderful with me.
How a person reacts to CF depends a lot on the individual, and how/why you know them. But in general, I get nice people. It's more the people that I don't know, that I see in passing, that are rude enough to deserve a beat-down. Haha. And then, I'm just rude back. <img src="i/expressions/devil.gif" border="0"> And as I said, if you wish to email me to interview personally, I am certainly up for it, so feel free.
