Kate Cutler shares what it means to support her husband, Mel, in his cystic fibrosis (CF) journey—from managing treatments and medications to anticipating his needs as he gets older.
For many in the CF community, caregiving isn’t just about responsibility—it’s about love, partnership, and protecting the person you love most. Watch to hear Kate’s perspective.
Full transcript:
“It’s interesting, that word caregiver. I look at us as caregivers of each other, right? Um, he’s my husband, I’m his wife, and really, I look at it as my wife duties might just be a little bit different. For example, I’ll call in his medications. I’ll be in touch with the insurance agency. So, there’s a lot of those little things, but I think most importantly, um, as his wife, as his caregiver, as his teammate in everything we do, is being there for him in aspects that I can contribute to his CF. So, I can’t do Mel’s treatments for him. I can’t help his lung function other than getting his treatments ready. Making sure he’s got his pills when he needs it, um, making sure that if he’s tired he knows it’s okay to take a break, having oxygen ready if he needs it.
“Those kinds of things I think have really shaped me to be more aware of as he ages, as he gets older, you know, the CF journey typically gets harder. And so as he gets older, I definitely work to kind of be preemptively anticipating things. If he’s coughing more for a few days, I get him an extra treatment. I help him get ready for an extra airway clearance. Um, if someone’s not feeling good that we’re going to see, I’ll probably cancel and reschedule.
“So as a caregiver, I think I’m just a little extra protective, and that’s part of the CF journey, is protecting the person you love the most.”