Truth is, CF doesn't have to be a disease that takes away a person's ability to live life. Sure, it's unpredictable and it's dangerous, but it's not really a death sentence anymore unless it's allowed. I'm not saying it's not hard or dangerous, but it is very treatable. If people with CF don't take care of themselves, obviously the disease will progress very fast. No one with CF is absolutely perfect with their treatments. I still miss a pill or two sometimes. Sometimes I just don't feel good, and skip a treatment. However, if one doesn't at least do their best to keep up with everything, then their health will quickly deteriorate. I still do my absolute best, and as long as I do my best, then I won't lose very much.
It's no accident that people like me are healthier than the people on social media, who either exaggerate their illness or skip their treatments to be super sick to garner sympathy and likes. It's no accident that I'm healthier than some normal teens my age. I take care of myself the best way I know how and always have. Sure, not every treatment, diet, and medication has been perfect, and it doesn't have to be, and it never is, but that doesn't mean you should just give up when things go wrong. A lot of people with CF hear that the life expectancy is only 41 years old currently, and they're my age and think, "Welp, I've already lived half of my life. What's the point?", or they go through hell and cry themselves to sleep every night asking, "Why do I have this disease?"
Truth is, I've been there many times, but there's a way out. It's healthy to feel upset and to get emotional sometimes, especially when we are given an extremely unfair and unlucky hand in life, just not everyday. You have to pull yourself out of that pit while praying for miracles. No one but yourself can get you out of that pit, and God often lets us struggle because adversity produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Think of it this way: I've hatched a few broods of chickens before. Baby chicks have to struggle to get out of their shell. If you crack the egg open for them, they will die, but if you let them struggle and work on their own, they will live. That's the same with life. In order to be healthy, you have to suffer. Not everyone makes it, but those who do come out of suffering a better person.
Death and dying, in a lot of ways, is a choice. I've figured that out through trail and error throughout my life. Just because the doctors say something doesn't make it true. When I was a newborn, doctors said I had 16 years to live. Well, I'm 17 years old now, halfway to 18, and I'm extremely healthy for what I have. That's because I made a choice. I decided to get up and fight. I wasn't going to surrender like so many people in my situation often do. I was determined to be one of those survivors. God supported it. He cured my heart defect so that would be one less thing I had to worry about.
However, He hasn't cured my CF. Unlike a lot of people, I don't curse God for that. God isn't a magical sky fairy who gives us everything we ask for. In fact, God is often the opposite, but He does things because He loves us and wants us to grow. I've read and studied my bible over and over again. Job is my favorite book in the bible, just ahead of Romans, and Romans is just ahead of Matthew. As far as my understanding goes, God allows suffering to better us. He will put us through things we cannot withstand without Him. He will test our faith to our breaking point and beyond. But God never leaves or forsakes us, unless we leave and forsake Him, like many people often do.
