For over a decade by now, I’ve suffered from a very uncomfortable and embarrassing gastrointestinal condition that, for the longest time, I simply wrote off as a symptom of Cystic Fibrosis.

After all, many people with CF (including myself) have severe digestive issues caused by a buildup of mucus throughout the entire system. This mucus has clogged up my pancreas, making it pretty much useless to me. Even after I began taking Trikafta and underwent the “ Great Trikafta Mucus Purge”, the damage had already been done. At least, that’s what I’ve hypothesized since starting Trikafta in 2019. 

While my CF-Related-Diabetes went completely into remission, and I was able to reduce the amount of enzymes (AKA Creon) I took with every meal, I still suffered from severe GI issues. Issues that, until a couple months ago, I blamed entirely on Cystic Fibrosis.

Why did I stop blaming my severe digestive issues on CF? Well… long story short, I was talking to my CF attorney about what’s been going on with me health-wise, for insurance reasons (my attorney also has CF), and she told me flat-out, “Ummmm… you really need to get that checked out. That’s not Cystic Fibrosis…”

She then went on to explain to me that, since people with CF are living longer, healthier lives, new health issues are starting to rear their ugly heads among us. Many of those issues include (but are not limited to) Crohn’s Disease, IBS, SIBO, ulcers, severe acid reflux, and, worst of all, early onset Colon cancer. Because of this, my attorney (and a little later on, my medical team) told me I really needed to get regular colonoscopies starting at the ripe old age of twenty-two, and it’s imperative that I get my current symptoms thoroughly checked out as soon as possible. 

After learning about all of this, the rest of my week was ruined. I became very nervous and hyper-aware of my symptoms, especially as I began to log my food, symptoms, and bathroom trips. 

I noticed that I was starting to feel significantly worse during the week. As my anxiety spiked, so did my trips to the bathroom, despite my appetite going out the window (resulting in me eating less food). The longer my anxiety lasted, the harder it was for me to get on with my daily life; the more tired and irritable I became. 

Overall, it was really shitty (literally and figuratively). 

But, after writing down my feelings as they came and went, forcing myself to leave my house every day by 10:00 AM, and talking things out with my therapist, my anxiety subsided. As my anxiety subsided, so did my digestive issues. And my appetite returned. 

Interesting coincidence. 

Of course, I’m still gonna go through with the colonoscopy. I’m not looking forward to it. Frankly, I’m afraid of it. But, I’ll feel better once it’s over with. Hopefully, the doctors discover a physical issue that can simply be taken out, curing me of these digestive issues. 

However, I’m not confident that the colonoscopy will find anything wrong with me, either. In fact, based on what I’ve noticed so far, I’m certain that anxiety plays a major role in my current (and past) gastrointestinal issues. 

That said, food seems to also be a major trigger of my gastrointestinal issues, though it’s hard to figure out what exactly has been giving me so much trouble for so many years. 

It’s easy to pin the blame on fast food. However, I haven’t had a fast food meal since… well… I can’t even remember the last time I ate fast food. And yet, my symptoms have persisted. 

I know I can’t eat beans, yogurt, peanut butter, regular butter, or cheese without suffering major consequences, but that doesn’t explain why I can eat broccoli, lettuce, potatoes, avocadoes, corn, cow’s milk, goat’s milk, ice cream, sunflower seed butter, vegan butter, and other stuff like that. Same goes for many spicy foods. I have no trouble eating taco meat heavily spiced with pepper and chili powder. But if I so much as take a single bite of food from any Mexican restaurant, all hell breaks loose a few short hours later. I can easily eat most Tai foods and sushi wasabi, but God forbid I eat tempura, potstickers, or orange chicken of any kind. I can eat a steak from Texas Roadhouse just fine, but if I eat a steak from Outback Steakhouse, I better hope I don’t need to leave my house for the following twenty-four hours. 

The list of contradicting sensitivities continues on and on and on…

However, as shitty as this all is, it’s important to note that none of this is exactly dire. I’m not dying. I’m not sick 25/8. I’m not experiencing any scarily alarming symptoms (such as weakness, unexplained weight loss, blood in the toilet, etc). I still weigh a healthy 135 pounds, and I don’t experience typical symptoms of indigestion (which makes me wonder if I’ve been suffering from indigestion at all since starting Trikafta). Overall, I remain extremely healthy for someone my age with the conditions I was born with. In fact, the main reason why I’ve been able to pay much more attention to this “CF issue”, is because of Trikafta. 

Without Trikafta, I would’ve never investigated my digestive system further. In the past, I was too preoccupied with my respiratory system to really put much thought into my digestive system beyond blaming all of the symptoms on CF. Trikafta reversed my CF-Related-Diabetes, I gained over twenty pounds in two months, and 90% of my indigestion issues went away completely. Yet, a number of other digestive issues remained. 

Once the worst of the covid pandemic ended, I settled back in Colorado, I got used to college, and noticed that I was still suffering from very abnormal digestive issues, I was able to focus on those issues. Which leads me to now. 

As much as I like to bitch and moan about anything and everything, I must not forget to count my blessings, and remind myself of how far I’ve come. In a way, the fact that I can focus on the very minor problem of suffering from the runs at least once per week, is a miracle in itself. As prior to Trikafta, suffering from the runs was the least of my medical worries.

Nowadays, I'm healthy enough to the point that my GI symptoms (which I've figured out how to adapt to) have become my primary health concern. My lungs are fine. My heart is fine. My brain is (mostly) fine, aside from some lingering anxiety and depression. My GI problem is really the only thing, medically speaking, that's still getting in my way more frequently than I'd like. And I hope and pray that it's easily fixable.