This age thing. . . as related to cystic fibrosis and our images

[Guest guest]

When I was about 40 or 41, I was (confession!) riding my motorcycle

to a doctor appointment in Oakland. I was pulled over by " the local con

stabulary, " as my husband used to refer to them, and pulled to a stop.

I was asked to present my driver's license, registration and added mot

orcycle permit. I did so. The guy said to me, " Look, kid, I don't want to

see your mother's license, even if you do own this chopper; I want to see

yours; this is obviously not you! " I peered at it and it looked more

or less like me, and certainly not my mother, who at the time was 80+

years old, and not driving.

So, I asked the officer if could set the peg down on the bike. He said

that I could. So I got off, spun around, stood up and removed my hel

met, my jacket, (It was a very cold day in January), My turtle-kneck T-

shirt, and proceeded to the layers beneath, when all of a sudden, the

guy went (cannot imagine why!) into a complete panic and began scr

eaming at me, " Lady, PLEASE PUT YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON,

PLEASE! " I had gotten down to a short-sleeved light grey t-shirt and

was starting to unzip my pants (leg zippers). He turned bright red, and

said, " LADY, I BELIEVE YOU--HONEST I DO! PUHLEASE PUT YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON! "

Well, I was a long way from nude, but

figured that I had made the point, and very sloooooowly " put my clothes

back on, " and sat on the saddle of my bike. I asked for my documents

back and they were returned to me.

Then, as he blunderingly admitted that this was my driver's license and

he was really sorry, and so on, I asked him whether I had commited a

traffic violation, and he said, that I had not, but that to him I appeared

to young to be in possession of a legal driver's license much less a

motorcycle permit. I thought about this, and said, " You know, one can

get a motorcycle permit at age 16 with a restricted driver's license. Of

course, at my age, that does not apply, but is it not illegal to pull some

one over if no violation has occurred--I mean, is that not " profiling? "

The poor guy! He thought that I was going to turn him, his badge number and

the whole thing in, report him, file a complaint and poss

ibly sue the department, as I HAD mentioned that I had now missed

my doctor appointment for no reason. I never did file a complaint, but

as I was far, far thinner then than I am now, I decided that investing in

a little nutrion work would not harm my image.

So, we have both the kiss of death and the gift of eternal youthfulness!

What I did do was send a letter to the officer himself via his badge num

ber and explain that I had cystic fibrosis, the nature of the disease, and

that he had caused me to miss a very important medical appointment. I got a

prompt reply from they poor guy, name included almost immedia

tely! VERY APOLOGETIC and even SYMPATHETIC!

And then there was last December, 2003 in the ER with my broken el

bow and they all said, " There must be some mistake, " and wanted to

take 20 years off my age, my records, etc. Now, if they could take

those same 20 years off my pancreas, my liver and my lungs and ticker,

well maybe we would be negotiating!

Love to all you young-looking folks out there in the cf world,

n Rojas, wcf, CFRD, and all that goes with it. . . . . . . .