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Old 08-28-2008, 05:47 PM
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Jo Ellen Jo Ellen is offline
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adoptingourfirst... I have read your post about your concern of CF. My nephew and niece are 12 and 8 and both have the disease. As far as a child having the disease both the mother and the father have to be carriers for a child to have it. There are different aspects of the illness. My nephew has more of the digestive problems and was diagnosed at 2 months old. He wasnt thriving as he should have been at the time so they did a number of tests and found out he has CF and has been on the enzymes since he was 2 months old. My niece has more of the problems with her lungs so therefore wasnt diagnosed until she was 6 months old. She too takes the enzymes for her stomach but has more issues with her lungs. She has had pollups removed from her nose and will need that surgery again as they are growing back now. I am only sharing what I know about it based on what I know from my brother and sister in law as they deal with the illness with their children on a daily basis. The good news is the life expectancy is much older than it use to be. A CF patient can now live into their 30s where back in the 50's children with it didnt live long enough to attend school. I know from living with it in our family it can be a scary thing to think about. There is a young woman by the name of Lo Dietrich from Tulsa OK who has written a book with her parents on her fight with CF. The name of the book is The Spirit of Lo and can be found online by typing in the name of the book. I have read the book and it gives day to day insight of what a CF patient lives with daily. I hope this helps you in your search for more information.
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