Profile for Michael Rankin

mikorankin Surfer participant

• Santa Rosa Beach, FL

I am a 48 year old CF patient; a husband to a wonderful wife; and a father to two incredible girls. I was diagnosed with CF at 18 months of age after a series of "failure to thrive" diagnoses. The diagnosis brought my parents to their knees albeit only to bounce back up and meet CF's challenges, head on.

Fortunately, I responded well to the rudimentary medications available at the time, although they were by and large borrowed from other diseases such as pancreatitis and asthma. But more importantly I was fortunate that the treating physicians and the disease researchers were as stubborn as my parents, and would not rest on borrowed asthma medications when CF patients were expiring after less than a decade. My mom's number one job was to manage my lungs and my weight with the offered medications, while involving herself with the community and fund raising efforts to buy the next medical advancement devoted to CF.

My dad had a different role - that of a sports mentor.....something that would augment the early medications while science was playing catchup to the disease. I am forever grateful for the instillation of the competitive spirit that would push me to win in sports at a time when CF treatment providers were willing to write letters excusing me from physical education class if the coughing bothered me too much. My coughing only bothered others. As for me, a cough meant that the next breathe was going to be a better one.

Competitive sports promoted a less complicated symptomology for me. It was clear to me that I only struggled to win but not to breathe in my early years of cystic fibrosis. I played soccer; ran track; and competed in karate tournaments until the first signs of a deepening cough at about 13 years old. The summer before high school brought about my first drop in pulmonary function numbers. I had to take the next step as land sports gave me the ability to stop and rest without consequence. A sport in a pool meant hard work and rhythmic breathing in order to stay afloat. Swimming would be the key to my life's extension.

I joined my high school swim team as a freshman and quickly brought my FEV1 up from the low 90's to the high 90's within the first year. By my sophomore year I gained a better stroke and a better finish time. By my junior year I progressed through district finals and into regionals. My senior year was to be my best year yet and was going to be my path to a college scholarship if I could shave off one more second. I was practicing twice a day and lifting weights on the weekends. Nothing was going to stop me, except for cold, dry air followed by high pollen counts. I would go from a state qualifier the previous year to adding a full two seconds to my stroke.

Those two seconds would mean literally 50 plus competitors in front of me for any school I had hoped to swim for the following year. I just could not shake the dry winter conditions followed by Texas' brutal spring pollen jubilee. Spoiler alert: I would learn only a short while later that a coastline coupled with an active lifestyle would be the toolbox that would help me add another chapter to treating CF.

I received an invitation from my aunt to come visit her in Clearwater Beach, FL over my spring break. The area had a college and a beach. My aunt had always figured me for a 'beach boy' and my lungs were begging me for the change. The singular week spent running and swimming on the beach was transformative. I returned home feeling fantastic but could not hold those gains beyond a few weeks. The only logical step was to move to Florida and go to college where my lungs told me I belonged. And since I wasn't able to make the swim team I gave myself a consolation prize: A lifeguard position at Clearwater Beach.

That position was in complete conflict to the laid back lifestyle perceived by outsiders. It was a day devoted to training and more training, not to tanning lotion and girl watching. It was perfect for me as it provided the day in and day out training of a swim team, yet my office was not a pool but a hyper-charged, salty air chamber called the Gulf of Mexico.

I would come home to Dallas for Christmas and bewilder my CF specialists by showing increased FEV1 numbers one, two, and three years into my undergraduate degree. Statistics for lung volume decline routinely show about a 1-2% annual degradation in lung function yet I had moved up to essentially a normal lung function (96% of predicted FEV1) from '88-91.

After undergrad I moved on to grad school in Pensacola, FL. It was a conscious effort to move to the area that has a seasonally guarded beach, so as to focus on studies....but it came at a price in the off-season. The absence of lifeguard training was somewhat replaced by joining my school's water polo club but I quickly fell behind on the competitive scale. It quickly became evident that I didn't function well away from the coastline. I finished up my needed degrees and moved to South Florida to guard against the cold and live on the Atlantic coastline. This proved to be so beneficial that I testified to the oceans' healing powers to my Tampa Bay CF specialist. He acknowledged my anecdotal evidence and would prescribe hypertonic saline solution to me a decade later.

I don't boast those same pulmonary function numbers from over 20 years ago, but the fact that I have numbers is worth boasting about considering many 'healthy' men my age are anything but healthy. We recently made a move from one coastline to another and now live an hour away from my lifeguard alma mater of Pensacola Beach. I am on a number of medications that science has delivered to the CF community, and one special medication delivered daily by mother nature's Gulf of Mexico. I have a full-time career but I still make time for my gym...the beach. I am an avid runner and paddle boarder. I'm not fast or skilled at either but I'm no longer looking to decrease my time in an event....only to increase my time on Mother Earth.

I am excited to meet the Mauli Ola crew at Pensacola Beach this July and finally acquire the surfing skills that will allow me to add one more workout at my 'gym.'

Sincerely,

Michael Rankin