The Struggles of School and Having CF (GP)


Hello, I am Liv and as a 17-year-old, I have had my fair share of experiences in education, throughout primary, secondary and now college.

Although my cystic fibrosis has not really had much of an impact on my lung function until the last few years (where I have fought several fungal infections that are still affecting me to this day), my digestive problems have affected me massively which caused me having to use the disabled toilet in primary and high school due to comments being made by other students which has had a big impact on my self-esteem. Speaking of self esteem, obviously in high school people can be petty and very ignorant to differences, I started to get bullied with people saying I was faking my illness, they hoped that I died of it soon and other things such as those - causing me to move schools where I lived the best 2 years of my life so far, raising over £500 for the CF Trust and making friends that I know will last a lifetime.

Like many CFers, attendance at school became a problem because of hospital stays, appointments and just general exhaustion due to having to work a lot harder than everyone else to fight infections and live an everyday life. My attendance dropped to 60% in year 11 - the crucial year in education where students sit their GCSE exams so passing all of them is something I am incredibly proud of.
I am very happy to have made friends throughout my school life who are so understanding of my condition and probably manage my illness better than I do, reminding me to have my meds, visiting me in hospital and standing up to those who make comments about things that they do not understand.

Other children probably don't understand what CFers have to do on a daily basis before and after school as well as the normal things such as having homework and a social life. We have to fit in medications, sometimes IVs, eating double the amount to maintain a healthy weight and do exercise to help us live a longer life and keep our lung functions up - due to exhaustion, we need extra sleep as well which can be very hard to fit in due to the pressures and stress placed upon teenagers in today's society. Often, the stress of everyday life can cause mental health problems for CFers as we question whether all the work and exhaustion is worth it, but we have to keep on going and try and live as normal a life as possible whilst we can.

Thank you so much for reading my blog if you got this far, and I hope, if there are any CFers reading this, that you are all healthy and succeeding in life! :)

If you would like to contact me for anything -
My Instagram: oliviaxlang
My Twitter: livjane1511

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