In the season finale of “It’s a Lung Story”, Dr. Ahmet Uluer, Lauren Harvey, and Andrea Gavin Becker return to the studio for a deeply honest conversation about caregiving in cystic fibrosis—what it demands, what it gives back, and what often goes unseen.

They’re joined by two caregivers: Pam Richards, mother to an adult daughter living with CF, and Shannon Mortimer, a CF spouse. Pam and Shannon share what it means to love and care for someone through years of illness, hospitalizations, and transplant care. They talk about how stepping in and out of the caregiver role shapes identity, family dynamics, and emotional endurance. They speak openly about trust, guilt, burnout, faith, support, and the emotional aftermath that doesn’t automatically resolve when health stabilizes.

Woven into the episode are voice messages from people living with CF, offering gratitude to the caregivers who manage medications, sit through long hospital nights, absorb medical trauma, and quietly hold families together.

For many couples in the cystic fibrosis community, building a family means facing infertility—and deciding how to move forward when biology makes things harder, yet again. In this episode, Dr. Ahmet Uluer, Lauren Harvey and Andrea Gavin Becker dive in with Darcy Esiason—CF spouse, mom of two, therapist, and director of the Boomer Esiason Foundation’s IVF Grant Program. We talk about choosing to be with someone with CF, love, and what it takes to stay grounded through the stress and uncertainty of IVF.

Darcy shares the story of how she and her husband, Gunnar, met, fell in love, and navigated the realities of infertility—from the science (and yes, the scalpel) to the surprising moments of laughter, spirituality, and grace that carried them through. She also talks about the work their foundation is doing to make IVF possible for more people with CF—one beautiful baby at a time.

It’s a story about persistence, partnership, and finding joy and humor in unexpected places—including driving a vial of testicular tissue across town before sunrise. Whether you’re navigating IVF yourself or just curious what family-building looks like when CF is part of the story, don’t miss this episode.

Resources:

https://www.esiason.org/assistance/ivf-grant/

NACFC 2025 presentation by Dr. Ahmet Uluer and Dr. Karen von Berg: “A Breath of Fresh Age: Redefining Growing Older With Cystic Fibrosis” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHg8Pr0J8_o

The content presented in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not intended as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Most people with CF know their lungs better than anyone. But the liver? It’s rarely front and center. In this episode, Dr. Ahmet Uluer, Lauren Harvey and Andrea Gavin Becker talk all things liver with Dr. Jay Freeman, a hepatologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a leader in the GI and liver complications of children and adults with cystic fibrosis. Joining that conversation is Sarah Richards—who received a double lung and liver transplant at Duke—to talk about one of CF’s most overlooked complications: liver and biliary disease.

Sarah shares what it’s like to live through end-stage liver failure and come out the other side, while Jay explains how CFTR affects the liver and what screening for liver and biliary disease looks like—as well as early warning signs for people with CF.

We cover scoring systems, swollen bellies, ultrasound screening, and we search for answers beyond “bad luck” as the best explanation medicine has to offer.

Also tucked into the episode: a spirited debate over sandwich geometry, Batman, and a karaoke moment of brilliance.

Jay Freeman: https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/find-a-doctor/profiles/alvin-j-freeman

Find our Sarah Richards on Instagram:

Resources:

NACFC 2025 presentation by Dr. Ahmet Uluer and Dr. Karen von Berg: “A Breath of Fresh Age: Redefining Growing Older With Cystic Fibrosis”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHg8Pr0J8_o

The content presented in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not intended as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.