Having Cystic Fibrosis motivated Annaka Haynes to become a nurse

 

Annaka Haynes shared her journey in a "CF Community Blog" post.

"Managing nursing school and my health has been one of the hardest challenges I have ever taken on. Nursing school is difficult on its own, but adding a chronic lung disease on top of it doesn’t make it any easier. I had amazing results after I first started Trikafta, and my lungs continued to respond well to the medication. Sometimes I would forget that I had CF, and it was nice to forget. During my first year of college, I tried to do everything my roommates were doing — and often ended up sick. Living in the dorms probably didn’t help. But at the time, my lungs were still keeping up for the most part."

"My second year began (first semester of nursing school), and school became way more stressful. I spent many late nights studying and doing homework, tried to have fun as any college kid does, struggled to find time for my health, and found myself sick again. But this time, I was sick for a few months instead of a few weeks. Instead of enjoying my holiday break, I spent it in the hospital, and then at home doing IV antibiotics. It was so frustrating, but I knew that I could have prevented this." 

Read more at: https://www.cff.org/community-posts/2024-03/becoming-nurse-advocate-patients

Cheers!

Donna