Who Me? Longevity!

[Guest guest]

I've been busy packing, as we leave Sunday for the island paradise also known as

the island parking lot, Oahu, and haven't been able up to now to suggest what

helps someone with CF survive. n gave a brief personal description of her

early years, and I must admit, I have never milked a cow or chickens for that

matter. I do know the difference between a cow and a bull as it seems the bulls

are hornier (larger horns) and often are standing on the back of a cow probably

to see over the fence. Of course, surviving any disease depends on the quality

of medical care, and the love and support you get from family. My early doctors

were no nonsense types who treated the many symptoms, as CF wasn't invented (as

a specific disease) until I was eight years old. That year I spent the summer of

1939 in a hospital in Dallas, TX on IV's and floating in cool water, and

drinking all the fruit juice and chocolate milk I could swallow. Superman comics

came out that year, and I pictured myself as Kent. Later, I thought it a

better idea to take Lois Lane in the phone booth with me, but that's getting

ahead of my story. If chatter helps one survive, my mother always said I learn

to talk at ten months and never stopped. Now you know why I never lost a case

when I was an attorney...the jury was happy just to get out of there! CF was

with me wherever I went and all the time. It manifested in my early years with

bowel and breathing problems, which suggested asthma. As asthma is treated

similarly to CF, I sat next to the huge machines in the doctor's office four

days a week for an hour after school. When I started drum lessons at age ten, I

conned the doctor into letting me use the machines three times a week so I could

march in the grammar school band. As I was so tiny, my mother made my uniform. I

was very active on the high school boxing team (Golden Gloves Southeast runner

up) in the band and orchestra and as an editor of the school newspaper. I played

the tympani in a symphony orchestra, attended the Juilliard School of Music, and

had my own jazz combo until I went to law school at age 23 after two years in

the Air Force during the Korean " police action. " By then I had two Caldwell Luc

sinus surgeries and so many polyp removals I've lost count. I got married in my

senior year of law school, and after passing the bar exam, took a position with

a New York Stock Exchange firm. I later became a stock broker too. CF became a

dominating reality when Harry Schwachman, M.D. the late dean of CF doctors

warned that at the rate I was going, I wouldn't last three years. That sure got

my wife's and my attention. With her influence, I went back to college, became a

teacher and during those twenty seven years, I have accumulated two masters, a

doctorate, and am an Associate of the University of London where my wife and I

and two children spent a sabbatical year. We visit the U.K. as often as we can

and it is our home away from home. I taught government and history at a private

secondary school and law and government on the college grad level. With great

determination, we have hiked in the ish Cairngorms, the Swiss Alps,

northern Norway, Snowdonia and the Becon Beacons in Wales, the Rockies in

Montana and Alberta, the Smokies, along a glacier in Alaska, and with our

daughter, a volcano in Hawai'i. I don't think I'm up to doing any more

volcanoes. I've always been enthusiastic about life, get depressed when I'm ill

like everyone else, (and when my sports teams lose), and have few regrets. A

friend who is over ninety says he never buys green bananas or extends his

drivers license for more than a year. I'm a bit more optimistic than that, and

as we extended our mortgage to pay for our children's college, we have ten more

years left to pay it off. Hopefully, I'll be able to. A child and adult who

knows they are loved will have a full life no matter how short the years. When

you keep active, you don't have time to dwell on your maladies but all the while

being realistic and understanding the limitations. A " positive charged " attitude

makes a big difference. Hal