It’s easy to become complacent. Life is rocking along, you’re feeling well, doing what you love to do, so one busy day, you decide to skip a treatment or neglect to take your pills. After all, you’re doing great, what’s it going to hurt? Afterward, you do okay, so in a couple of days, you decide to skip again. Soon, skipping has become a habit, and then you develop a lung infection and land in the hospital and wonder why. After all, you’ve been doing everything you’re supposed to – oh, but wait – you skipped a treatment three times last week, or you neglected to take your pills a time or two. Now, you’re paying the price. You’re not doing so well anymore. Perhaps you forgot that the reason you were able to do well was because of the treatments and the pills.

It’s like building a house. Without a solid foundation the attic will eventually crumble. With CF, whether pre- or post-transplant, the foundation is compliance, and the attic is you – living your life. Or you can compare it to what I do in my coaching. We run drills and practice jumping. Sometimes, a kid does well consistently in practice and thinks he or she can skip a practice or two, because they’ve got this. Then, after a few missed drills and skipped practices, they find their performance lacking and wonder why. We look back together and see a pattern of slacking off. For people with CF, enzymes, antibiotics, nebulizers, the vest, exercise, and, maybe anti-rejection drugs done properly on a regular basis, without fail, don’t get in the way of life but allow you to live a better, more normal life.

Some people wonder how I stay so healthy, but they don’t know the years of work, exercise and the daily compliance that go into my well-being. I work hard for every good day I have, and you must do the same if you want to do well. I know there are no guarantees. Sometimes, you do everything right, and you still get sick. All the more reason to do everything you need to do to stay healthy. It’s worth the fight.

“I always say, complacency is the kiss of death.” – Shari Redstone

OR

“I think complacency is what you allow it to be.” – Draymond Green