Thanks for taking the time to visit and to read my story. My name is Jonathan and I was ten-years-old when I told this story in 2003. If you met me, I bet you'd tell your friends that I am a humorous person, as well as a reasonable and serious one. I'm athletic, too, and a good student. I know you'd call me a good friend if you got to know me. 

The best parts of my life are my family and friends. I share my most precious moments with them. I have a twelve-year-old sister named Kristen, and it's fun having her around. We have some great times together, as well as some pretty sad and disappointing ones. When I think about how important my parents are to me, I just can't understand teenagers with bad attitudes. It seems like they are just interested in being 'cool' and powerful, and disrespectful.

Being me and staying healthy take up a lot of my time. That's because I have a medical problem called cystic fibrosis. I have to take good care of myself, which involves taking a lot of medicine and doing treatments to keep my lungs clear like yours. In fact, my day revolves around taking all the medicines. It's a difficult job, so I try to joke about it as much as I can to make it a little easier. I try to eat good meals and to listen to my doctors, too, since they're the ones who figure out what medicines I need to take, and they're the ones who try to keep me out of the hospital. I guess you could call me a hospital expert, since I've been in at least twenty times. If you need to go in to the hospital and you're worried about it, just ask an old pro like me to help you understand it all.

My friends often question me about cystic fibrosis. I try to answer their questions in a way they can easily understand. The way I see it, I'm pretty much like them except that my day is a bit more complicated. I enjoy baseball, basketball and golf.

If I were the principal of my school, I would try to make it a safe place to be, and a fun one, too...a place where kids can ask for whatever help they need.
 
 

Here I am in the hospital with my dad. Actually, I'm about to go home, so believe me, my smile is sincere. My dad calls me his role model, but I'd say the same thing about him! Now in this next picture, look real hard and you can see the machine that keeps my lungs clear. Kids who have cystic fibrosis tend to have very thick mucus, so it's important for them to use machines like this one. I have a special sort of vest at home that vibrates when I wear it. It is definitely not much fun for me, but I have to admit that it usually does the job it's supposed to.
 
 

 

Joan Fleitas, Ed.D., R.N.
Associate Professor of Nursing, Lehman College, CUNY
Bronx, New York 10468

Last updated: November 14, 2004