Living with Cystic Fibrosis

hi my name is karrie and i am a cf patient living with this disease has made me much stronger of a person at heart and in soul. How you ask ? well it started when i was a small child at 6months old i was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and for those of you who dont know what this is it is a genetic birth defect that affects the lungs and stomach and every baby born is checked for this . This disease causes thick and sticky build up in the lungs of mucus and this requires hand therapy which your doctor will teach you or the vest an airway clearence system you put on and it shakes the patients lungs in order to bring up the mucus.

Growing up with this disease was not easy many people backed off of me because they thought i was sick and i always wonderd why but for those that did accept me i was grateful and growing up i understood more what my disease was all about . My grandparents took me and raised me since birth my parents ran out on me and they did evrything in thier power to make sure i stayed alive god bless them for doing so and as the years went on it got better and worse and at times i was in the hospital on the vest 4 times a day which helped greatly . But the years went on and i am now 18 and happily married when i met my husband he helped me cope with my disease and eventually we got married .

I unexpectedly got pregnant and my cf team at childrens hospital was amazed and they said cf patients are usually sterile and they came out and told me that i had a chance of dying through this pregnancy because of my lungs my husband and me were very upset . We talked we didnt believe in abortions we decided to have the baby and i said i would have my husbands baby even if it kills me i love him and my child to death . So one of our doctors told us about the prenatal doctors that could help us so we went to see him and he told us yes there is hope and we were overjoyed and from then on we have gone through the pregnancy like nothing and i also have diabeties so its been controlled and now we have a healthy baby boy on the way and we are so proud and happy everything is working out . I share this story with any individuals weather you are new young old or a teenager with this disease in hopes of helping or even bringing light into someones life godbless and keep doing what you are doing stay on those treatments

Karrie