Yahoo Finance 
My Life Expectancy Is 44. This Is How I’m Dealing With Losing A Year To Covid
I was so excited to turn 21. I just graduated from university and had planned to take a year out, to travel, find time to focus on myself and discover my dream career.
But along with the excitement, came a lot of pressure. In my social circles there has always been an assumption that our 21st year will be the best of our lives so far, full of new experiences and adventure.
And don’t get me wrong, I had a wonderful birthday – but it was the months after that didn’t fit my expectations. The first half of my 21st year was spent lying in bed with agonising chest pain, unable to walk to the toilet alone. I was in hospital for weeks at a time, often being rushed to A&E. While I was hooked to a drip, waiting to feel better, I would daydream about finally having the strength to get a job and save enough money to travel to Australia with my boyfriend.
Living with cystic fibrosis, a chronic condition that causes my lungs and digestive system to become clogged with thick-sticky mucus, means I will continue to get more and more unwell until I eventually die from fatal organ damage.
My disability has always placed a great burden on my everyday life, what with my four-hour daily medical routine,involving combinations of physiotherapy, nebulisers and inhalers, regular hospital admissions and physiotherapists, dieticians and nurses checking up on every aspect of my condition.
I am currently reaching my own middle-age. That’s why I wanted my 21st to be the best year of my life
My illness is very unpredictable, and I am often doubled up in agonising pain, which leaves me bed bound and unable to eat for days at a time, without any warning. Frequent lung infections also mean I rely on regular courses of antibiotics which make me feel sick, dizzy and exhausted.
Cystic fibrosis is a life-threatening illness with an average life expectancy of 44, which means I am currently reaching my own middle-age. That’s why I wanted my 21st to be the best year of my life – because I...
