Hi my name is Bianca, I am nineteen years old and am currently living with CF. I was born in Victoria seven weeks premature, needing an Illial Attresia (part of my intestines removed due to a bowel blockage) when I was two days old. I was diagnosed at birth with having CF and spent the first two months of my life in hospital. The first few years were really hard with me in and out of hospital.
I then moved to Perth when I was three. I didn’t need to go into hospital for five years. I then went to Indonesia when I was ten and caught a really bad bug while I was there. I came back to Perth and gave the doctors a big headache because we couldn’t work out how to get rid of the bug. After a year of trying a lot of combinations of all different antibiotics and treatment tactics, something finally managed to kill the bug.
Life went on and I was in school, just happily plodding through life. When I was thirteen and just finished my first term in high school, mum and dad decided that we would become missionaries and move over to the Solomon Islands. Before they made that decision they consulted the hospital to see if it would be possible for me to move overseas with my condition. The doctors said it would be OK and that I would have to fly back every six months for a check up, which usually turned into a hospital admission.
It was a great time overseas and after living there for five years it was time for us to move back to Perth. The move back to Perth was harder as there are more bugs here and a much different climate. I have now been back in Perth for nearly one and a half years and have been in hospital about six times.
Looking back on my life as a whole so far, it has been a difficult path but one definitely worth taking! If you can keep positive and enjoy life as well as balance all your responsibilities I am sure that CF won’t stop you doing what you want to get out of life.
Bianca answered a member question about taking enzymes at school:
I am finding it really embarrassing taking my enzyme tablets at school in front of other kids. I am getting teased about it. What can I do?
If you are embarrassed about taking your tablets in front of people there are a couple of options to take, but first I just want to say that CF is nothing to be ashamed of, it is a part of you.
You can discreetly take your tablets by walking to the drink fountain or else walk away from the group with the tablets in your pocket and quickly put them in your mouth before you take a drink.
My mum would wrap them in with my lunch so I would have them there with my lunch, but all my friends knew that I had CF. I told them that this is something I need to do in order to eat food.
Often if you explain things (it doesn’t always have to be complicated, it can be a very simple explanation) people are very understanding of situations. The thing you must remember is that not taking enzymes is definitely not an option.
Interview from Rozee, 2013.