Making a change isn't easy.

I had a pretty general question for ya, and i saw how much u like questions. I am 19 years old and never been really compliant with my meds. i was never able to motivate myself long enough to keep doing them. i recently admitted myself into the hospital because ive felt worse than i ever had. I was told to watch your talk about cf and bag of tricks and i found you very insirational. in fact your the only person that has really gotten through to me and i realize i have to take my meds so i dont feel this crappy but im scared i may slip back into a depressive state about it.. I wanted to know how you kept doing your meds after your major scare, because you must have created a habit of not doing your meds consistantly n thats very hard to break out of. I to remember just beingon albuterol and chest pts when i was younger. times sure have changed just wish i could do it as easily.

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I'm happy to hear that you're open to change your habits concerning your health and I hope that you start to feel better. With that said, yes, I've been in your shoes.

The biggest thing for me, was to stop being selfish. All of the choices I was making that in turn had my health declining was all about what I wanted to do and what made me happy. Yet, everyone around me, who cared for me, was very sad about how sick I was getting. They were sad to see me become the shell of the man I once was. They didn't like to see me struggle to breathe. They hated seeing CF "hold me back".

After I had my "come to Jesus" moment I realized that it wasn't CF holding me back, but that it was me. It was a culmination of all of the bad choices that I had been making. Simply put, I wasn't putting my health first. And as you can probably guess, life isn't as awesome with bad health.

When I made a change, I decided to make a schedule and stick to it no matter what. I also committed to doing "everything right" for as long as I was doing "everything wrong" which in my case was 8 years. I see too many people that commit to doing their treatments for a month or two, don't see the change they had hoped for, and then quit. I didn't think it was realistic to erase 8 years of bad decisions in two months, or even two years; I committed for the long haul.

This commitment meant exercising regularly, increasing my daily treatments and being pro-active about hospital stays.

All I can say, is that it's worth it. I feel great. I spend less time in the hospital. I look better. I breathe better. My mind is better.

Hope that helps a little bit. I'm always here for a chat or any question that you may have.

Ronnie