Life Can Be Hard With Cystic Fibrosis
2/6/2025
My how fast life goes by when you are busy. It has been a little while since I updated this, and holy crap has the world changed underneath my nose. I am in my third week of the spring semester at George Mason. I achieved something I doubted I would be able to achieve, I got straight A’s in the fall. This puts my GPA at 3.92, but it has not been easy. Trikafta (the $300,000 per year miracle drug) has been incredible at keeping me out of the hospital for lung infections and CF exacerbations. CF is not just a lung disease however, since November I have been hospitalized with excruciating stomach pain due to Small Bowel Obstructions and one time for bleeding in my small bowel and colon. It has not been easy trying to juggle this disease, school, married life, caring for my parents and father-n-law. Now I am reading the New York Times or Washington Post, and my stomach rises in my chest. My life has been a struggle since day one and just when I have been given a sliver of hope thanks to Trikafta, I am having to worry about losing my grants for school and Medicare health insurance. Trikafta is a ridiculously expensive drug WITH Medicare, without it I won’t be around long. The copays that come with Cystic Fibrosis are nearly unsustainable in our current society. With the future so uncertain, I get very anxious about having to rely on government health insurance that may be gone tomorrow. Sorry to kind of bring the mood down a bit, but I had to say it. I am so optimistic about the future for the first time in my life and it is thanks to everyone that has donated to COTA in my honor. COTA funds have helped me afford the medicine that completely changed my life and gave me a second chance. Your gifts to COTA have helped me with the insurance premiums and absurdly high copays and I ask that you continue to HELP PLEASE. I have been walking the GMU campus, and this would have been impossible a few years ago without all of your help! The future is uncertain with our current healthcare system and I’m trying my best. I am going for straight A’s this semester as well. I look forward to grad school and my dream career as a history teacher. I have made it this far, living in and out of the hospital.
Thank you for considering any donation to COTA in my honor at this time,
James Krause