Monday’s class was going as usual. The professor lectured to us about vaccines, while I listened to her and scribbled down notes. I found the discussion interesting, although a bit disheartening, given my country’s recent push against vaccines.
“Given the rise of very preventable diseases, the usage of antibiotics and antivirals will probably rise, so let’s talk about how those work.” the professor lectured.
I turned to a clean page in my notebook and, once again, scribbled down notes as I listened to her drone on about the various kinds of antibiotics and antivirals.
“Unfortunately…” my professor said after about 20 minutes of lecturing, “Antibiotic resistance will surely rise even more. If that happens, then what? Well, aside from people just getting sick and having to fight off bacterial infections themselves, there is, at least one more way to treat bacterial infections that are antibiotic resistant…”
I instantly perked up, which got the professor’s attention right as she said, "That is called Bacteriophage therapy.”
“Yes?” she asked me, “Do you have something to say about that?”
“Goddamnit,” I thought to myself, knowing what was about to happen.
“I uhh…” I stuttered nervously, “I did bacteriophage therapy when I was a teenager.”
“You did?” my professor’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Yup.” I gulped as I glanced up at the clock, hoping I could leave.
“Well, would you like to tell us about it on Wednesday when we dive into the topic of bacteriophages?”
“I uhh, sure.” I nodded, avoiding eye-contact with the professor.
“Great!” she smiled, “Looks like we’ll be having a guest speaker on Wednesday! See you then, everyone!”
“Oh my God… What the hell have I done?”
Wednesday:
After a quick morning hike with Eric, I embarked on my commute to campus, shivering out of fear. Just before I pulled out of the driveway, Eric said to me, “Remember: You’re the expert.”
“Yeah, ok.” I replied, shaking my head.
Logically, I knew that Eric was right. After all, who else has personally experienced the effects of bacteriophage therapy? Well… lots of people. But not a lot of Americans have done it since the discovery of Penicillin in 1928. Even fewer Americans have lived to tell the tale, because most of them got access to bacteriophage therapy far too late.
I was one of the few Americans who was able to get it well before my lungs gave out on me.
Still, I was anything but the expert. And I was certain I’d fuck up my little presentation in one way or another, embarrassing myself in front of the entire class.
Once I arrived to campus and parked my Xterra in the parking garage, I was already near to tears. I took a moment to get my shit together and pray.
“Lord…” I sighed, “I’m gonna need your help when I do this presentation. I can’t do it alone.”
Finally, I took a dose of Propranolol with an entire bottle of water, wiped away the sweat and tears off my face with a tissue I had in my pocket, and headed to the lecture hall. All while doing my best to feign as much confidence as possible. I had 15 minutes till class started.
I. Was. Terrified.
“Before we dive into the technicalities of bacteriophages, today, as I said, we have a ‘guest speaker’.” the professor began the class, giving me a bit of a nod.
Just as I stood up, the terror I was feeling inexplicably vanished. Still feigning confidence, I pulled a box of bacteriophages from my camo hoodie pocket.
“These,” I began, doing my best to project my voice to the entire lecture hall, “... are bacteriophages specifically cultivated to kill Pseudomonas. Most of you have Pseudomonas growing in your lungs and sinuses, but you don’t get sick from it because you’re too healthy to get sick. I, on the other hand, have Cystic Fibrosis. And when I was a teenager, I got really sick from an antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas infection that completely colonized my lungs and sinuses. If left untreated, within five to ten years, the infection would’ve killed me…”
From there, I went on to describe how and why CF made me susceptible to Pseudomonas, as well as how and why the antibiotics eventually failed. Then, I mapped out the series of insane “coincidences” that led to me gaining access to the phage therapy.
“My grandma saw an ad for bacteriophage therapy on the side-bar of one of the medical websites she liked to browse… my mom- who is a real estate agent- randomly told one of the clients she had at the time about my illness. This client turned out to be first cousins with Dr. Francis Collins, who was still the head of the NIH in 2017… Dr. Collins confirmed that bacteriophage therapy was a legitimate science… a few days later, my mom and I flew to Portland, Oregon to begin the first few doses of bacteriophage therapy.”
I then brought up Mallory Smith, the 25-year-old Cystic Fibrosis patient who received bacteriophages for her severe lung infection around the same exact time I got bacteriophages for my lung infection.
“Mallory Smith died.” I remember saying bluntly, “But an autopsy showed that the bacteriophages were killing her infection even after she died… luckily for me, I survived my infection thanks to the bacteriophages. And those bacteriophages protected my lungs long enough for a new, groundbreaking Cystic Fibrosis medication to come out, called Trikafta.”
“Thanks to Trikafta, I am no longer susceptible to Pseudomonas, as far as anyone can tell. So long as I take Trikafta every day, I will remain as healthy and able as the rest of y’all… If I didn’t take those bacteriophages, I probably wouldn’t have died, but I would’ve started Trikafta in much worse shape. God only knows if I would’ve been healthy enough to stand here today, as I am now, if I didn’t get access to bacteriophages when I did…”
The class gave me a standing ovation, which completely floored me long enough for my peers to start raising their hands and asking me questions.