C. S. Lewis said "The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is."

No one knows how long he will live. Some people even go so far as to say that any of us could be hit by a bus any day. This is simply not true. Based on data about pedestrian fatalities involving buses, the actual odds of a person dying from being struck by a bus are one in 10 million.

By stark contrast, the odds of a person with cystic fibrosis dying before reaching age 37 are 1 in 2.

I have cystic fibrosis. To look at me you probably wouldn't guess that there is anything wrong with me. I'm a little on the skinny side perhaps, and maybe I look a little younger than I really am. My voice sound like I'm just getting over a cold or something, but based on appearance alone you would hardly know that I am fighting for my life, and it's a race against time.

My fight begins each morning before I even get out of bed. As I lie there beside my husband, my breathing sounds like crackling cellophane because of all the mucus that has collected in my lungs during the night. I spend the first 5 to 10 minutes of my day just coughingcoughing so that I can breathe well enough to get dressed and get moving.

Allow me to give you a run-down of My basic "to-do" list of medications for an entire day. By the way, this list is also why I'm a TSA Agent's worst nightmare when I try to go through airport security!

Joking aside, here is a basic inventory of the contents of my medicine cabinet and why I need them:

-Digestive enzymes-pills designed to do the work that my pancreas cannot. More than 40 of these total, 5 or so taken with anything I eat.
-2 Multivitamins to make up for what my body will not absorb from food, even with the enzymes.
-2 Calcium supplements, because my bones are already on the verge of developing osteoporosis.
-4 inhaled medications, each of them taking approximately 20 minutes to be delivered to my inflamed, infection-prone lungs as a mist.
-1 pill to protect the lining of my stomach from being damaged by all the other pills I take.
-1 pill to help control wheezing during the night.
-Liquid medication to help keep my allergies in check.
-A combination of prescription sleep aids, to ensure that I am well rested and fully able to get through my day.

Each enzyme, each multivitamin is a brazen reminder that my body is held hostage by an invisible disease that has no cure.

My daily routine

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