Author: EllyA-F
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Travelling carefree and with a carry-on full of drugs
Previously I’ve written about working with a condition, amongst other aspects of life but I haven’t shared any travel stories. This is the first post in a series on travelling with chronic illness. Fresh out of school 10 years ago, I travelled to Cuba for two months to learn Spanish and fail at Salsa. I…
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The Tale of the CF Cinderella
Do you ever just stop and take a minute, to think about which Disney heroine you might have been in another life? Like many a millennial I often seek to take inspiration from Walt and shoehorn my experiences into the relevant cartoon princess. Say, If I were to sum up the experience of having Cystic Fibrosis…
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Sweet love
It was late. The lights were dimmed. I stared at him. He stared right back. It was always special, but something felt different tonight. He leaned in and I felt my hands get clammy. Up close his eyes were huge. The blood was rushing to my head, all thoughts gone. The butterflies were dancing. Was…
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A lesson in vulnerability
Or, that time I mentioned my wheezy-hamster-lungs in an interview. Unsurprisingly having a life-shortening illness can make you feel a tad vulnerable at times. It can also make you feel like a superhero when you defy the odds. But there’s one context that has always made me feel more vulnerable about having Cystic Fibrosis than…
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Health is everything
Good health is everything. So some people believe. As humans we structure our needs in that well-known colloquialism of ‘[insert life changing challenge e.g. having no job or experiencing a divorce] …but hey at least I have my health’. I would argue that having no job or experiencing the break up of a…
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An appeal at the eleventh hour
It’s that time of year again. Oh, you thought I meant the election? Well, yes. But it’s also around about the time of year I end up in hospital for a 14 day course of intravenous antibiotics to treat the underlying and continuous infection in my lungs. By Cystic Fibrosis standards this is nothing; it’s…
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When the brainfog hits you bad; a specialist’s perspective
I would expect, that even if you aren’t a part of the niche, tight-knit community of CF-related diabetics like me*, you will have experienced brain fog at some point in your professional career. Or cognitive dysfunction, to give it its scientific name. Maybe it was a critical moment, in a big meeting as you pitched…
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Who made my clothes?
I recently blogged about my big-deal-but-not-really-a-big-deal decision not to buy any clothes for a year. If I were the kind of person who didn’t like clothes or was not easily swept up in the whispers of commoditized fast fashion that would not be worth telling you about. But I am, or was, that kind of…
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Slowing down fashion: a year-long experiment
I like clothes. Rather a lot. They’re beautiful, versatile, and help you be anyone you want to be. Or at least, that’s what they whisper at you from the mirror of the dressing room as you try them on. Which is why the conclusion I came to last month, to try not to buy any…
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Sorry but I don’t like your air
I got offered a freelance role recently. Successful agency, a big new business win to work on and, it goes without saying, some financial security. I turned it down. I could almost hear the recruiter thinking when I told her my decision, “is she crazy or just plain stupid?” Of course, she was nothing but pure…
Professionalsickgirl 