VERY SAD STORY

D

Don Wyatt

New Member
I thought I would write this little snippet, it wont mean much to anyone on here, unless they know of a similar situation.
My youngest son is 11, and attends a karate class, has been doing so for 4 years, one of his friends there a lovely quiet girl of the same age, has Cistic Fibrosis. She is active and lively, just like any other young girl of her age. She takes goodness knows how many drugs each day, one to do a certain job, others to counteract the side effects of the rest. Its a terrible situation. I understand the dad couldnt cope and the mum is doing the caring.
Anyway, I learnt today from the mum, that sufferers rarely make it past twenty years of age. I just thought to myself that in a few years time this young lady will be having to sit and listen, and go through the motions of careers advice at school, and revising for her GCSEs etc. and it made me feel quite upset.

How terrible for her, and the parents.
You know, last Sunday the Times printed its usual drivel, The Times Rich List. What utter rubbish. When you consider this childs fate, and many others around the world, we are all RICH, we have families, jobs, food on the table, and a roof over our heads, and the vast majority of us are fit and well.

What more could we really want. Im no bible basher, but i will be saying a prayer for this brave kid tonight.
Don.
 
And then you have rubbish like Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty who have good health and seem determined to kill themselves
 
some do make it to there 30s. I have seen 2 in Malawi with this condition, when its treated properly the survival rate increases so it may not be a bad thing to gain exams and even have a carear:)
 
The main thing with children with CF is that other diet and a few medical matters, they can lead more or less a normal childhood. It might be as they grow up they are sheilded from the news that their lives will be short, but a happy childhood can be acheved for many years.
As a child, my room mate at the children's home was a CF sufferer, he was treated the same as the rest of us, there was no cotton wool. Until the age of eleven he was up to the same scrapes as the rest of us, and was punished with the slipper and cane the same as the rest of us.
We all knew that we had to keep good care of him, but CF to us at a young age, meant little. It was only in his last year at the age of 12 that he was not up to as much outdoor life as he had hoped.
Since the 1960s, new drugs have added a few more years of life, but it is still a disease that needs more research, in time more will happen, but research into CF is still ongoing.
------------------
In Memory of John - at Highfield for eternity.
 
One of my old best buddies had it & he wasn't expected to make it to his teens, thankfully he made it well past that but sadly died at about 27 or 28. We grew up together & shared our enthusiasm for cars. He was very active & did everything everybody else did & never seemed to let his illness get in the way.
 
My husband has CF, when he was born he wasn't expected to live 2 days, he is now 27yrs, every morning he has to spend 30mins nebulising drugs, then he has a load of pills to take. Every time he eats he has to have drugs so he can digest his food (CF has damaged the bit of his stomace that produces enzymes). Every evening he has another 1hr of nebulizing drugs that can strip varnish of wood. An every 3months he has to be put on a IV an have drugs pumped into him that can kill him if that give him 1mili gram too much, and sometimes effect his his major organs (last year, he got liver damage, but now thankfully it is all healed now :) )
We have the fun prospect of a heart and lung transplant for him in the near future.
An the selfish bit, means I might be a widow at the age of 35 :(

But saying that, he is a brillant man, and I love him to bits.

He is a network manager of a school, works normal hours, he runs around, goes hill walking, strips engines, paints body panels, plays around with the house electrics, goes to car shows, we camp out, eat BBQ's. Infact he probably has a healther set of lungs than me (I used to be a welder).
He enjoys life as much as he can and he is just a normal person. You cannot even tell he had CF, unless he tells you. You just think he has cough.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top