Trikafta: Six Months Later

Six months ago today, I stood in my office (who even remembers what that feels like these days? LOL), anxious, eager and cautiously optimistic to find out what this box and the little pills inside would do for me. This medication was an answered prayer for so many. It was a miracle drug that many had waited for their entire lives. Personally, I was one of the lucky ones because this was not the first miracle drug I was able to take. The truth is my first miracle happened almost five years ago when the FDA approved Orkambi in July 2015.

Prior to Orkambi, I was admitted to the hospital on average 4-5 per year. Since starting Orkambi in August 2015, I’ve been hospitalized three times total. Three times. In five years. To me, this was more than enough. I didn’t care that my lung function hadn’t gone up, I didn’t care that I didn’t gain weight. I just relished in the fact that I finally had the chance to live something that more closely resembled a “normal life”. I cherished that I didn’t constantly feel sick and that I didn’t repeatedly have to put my life on hold to go spend two weeks in the hospital every couple months. What Orkambi did for me was life changing and I couldn’t imagine how it could get any better. Man was I wrong...

Last November, I started Trikafta, the newest and best CFTR modulator developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis, and once again, my life changed in ways I couldn’t even fathom.