This is my story, its a little long but gives you a true idea of who I am, and why I love fishing.
My name is Kevin Przybyl, I am 32 years old living with CF. I was born in raised in Buffalo, NY. My entire life has been amazing despite having Cystic Fibrosis; A deadly disease that I was diagnosed with at birth. My initial life expectancy was not good; if I was lucky I would live until I was in my teens. As you can see thanks to my parents' dedication to keeping me as healthy as possible, I am still here today. Growing up with this disease was not easy, constant medications, and treatments throughout the day, got in the way of a normal life. It has been even harder to maintain my life as a adult.
Despite this disease, I still was able to learn a lot from my Dad, a Vietnam Veteran in the Marine Corp, and my hero. My dad was a volunteer fireman and fire chief at my hometown fire department, so I was exposed to that great firehouse experience. It was that experience that made me decide to become a Paramedic at the age of 18. I dedicated every minute of my life to volunteering and working full-time as a paramedic spending hundreds of hours volunteering my skills to help save lives. The progressive worsening of my cystic fibrosis forced me into early retirement at age 24.
That early retirement gave me the opportunity to pursue another passion of mine that my dad taught me; bass fishing. My dad would take me out on fishing trips and around the town fishing every year throughout my childhood. That taught me the basic knowledge to one day becoming a great angler. As I grew older, that passion grew as well; I specifically had partners on the ambulance that loved to fish. Together we would bring our rods and gear on the ambulance and fish in ponds or off the shoreline of Lake Erie.
9 years ago I married my beautiful wife Michele, and quickly decided that it was time to leave Buffalo, for better health care and warmer more stable weather, so Orlando became our new home. Quickly after moving here I began a job at Walt Disney World as a bass fishing guide. There I learned all the techniques needed to be a guide and tournament angler. It was not long after starting at Disney I decided I wanted to start my own guide service and guide full time, so I took my Captains class and started my guide service; Orlando Trophy Bass. This business was established so I could raise awareness about cystic fibrosis. I love telling my story to my guests and love learning about their lives. I hope this business will gain people's attention and maybe they too will help raise money or educate people about this deadly disease. .
In August of 2009 my wife and I became proud parents to my son Casey. In a blink of an eye everything I do with my life and my business is all for him. Casey has forever changed my life in the greatest way, and has inspired me more than ever to stay strong and healthy.
In January 2010, I launched my own foundation to help those with Cystic Fibrosis; Kevin A Przybyl Breathe Easy Foundation. This is what I have been working towards for years and its finally happening. I am very excited to finally be able to help the 75,000 CF patients worldwide and hopefully improving their lives.
As of today, I continue to beat the odds; my lung function is at 22%, I am on oxygen full time and I have begun the process for a lung transplant. Currently, I have to take over 15 medications per day, several numerous times a day, I spend two hours a day doing breathing treatments, and chest therapy. I also must eat at least 6,000 calories per day to maintain my weight. I also have to exercise 3 days a week for at least 1 hour. I continue to get chronic lung infections that require IV antibiotics which I do through a medport in my chest, from home. My latest treatment lasted 6 months of multiple IV antibiotics taking 4 hours each day to infuse.. Despite all my health issues, I continue to fish when I have the strength to do so. Unfortunately, those days have become much less then ever. You will rarely hear me complain about CF, and I have put all this info on my site to raise awareness about what every person with CF goes through, not because I am looking for pity.
That folks has been my life thus far, hopefully with more exciting things on the horizon.
