Cystic Fibrosis. What can be said about this terrible disease? It is a heriditary disease affecting the lungs, sweat glands, and digestive system. People who have cystic fibrosis have to take medications to help breath and digestive enzymes to aid in digestion. When a child is born and it is suspect that they have cystic fibrosis, they do what is called a sweat test on the baby. If it comes back positive, some other test are conducted to confirm it. Some of the symptoms of cystic fibrosis are the following (this is in no way a complete list):
Thick mucous affecting mostly the lungs making it rather difficult to breathe. In people with CF, water and salt can not move through the tiny cells easily which makes it dry. The body then produces thick, mucus. Because of the thick mucous, many different bacteria like to make a home in the lungs causing further inflamation and mucous production. Some of the technical names are allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, pseudomonus. The person with CF will be put on a regime of antibiotics and drugs that thin the mucous.
Growth issues. Most of the time CF people will not grow to be very tall and due to digestive and pancreatic issues, they are usually underweight.
Clubbing of the fingers and toes. This happens over years of low oxygen supply to the body.
Treatmenst Include:
CPT or Chest Physical Therapy. This is done usually by the parent and the Respiratory Therapist. There is always the pneumatic vest. It does wonders to help get the secretions moving.
Bronchodilators: Albuterol, Levealbuterol, ipatroprium bromide, tiatroprium bromide, to name a few of the more well known ones. These help open the lungs to aid in the coughing up of the mucous.
Antibiotics: Whether they be IV or nebulized antibiotics they help fight off the diseases that like to camp out in the mucous.
Lung Transplant: One of the respiratory therapists that I used to work with (she had to quit. Her doctor felt she was exposing herself to too many germs), she and her brother have cystic fibrosis. Both of them have now received lung transplants and are doing amazing.
To get on a lung transplant list, one has to be sick enough to be very ill, but well enough to be able to take on new organs. One of my dear friend's daughter has CF and that kind of brings the illness right home. When I went to see her, I would hear her daughter cough that deep, uckky cough and I would want to do something to make her better.
Maybe some day there will be a cure for cystic fibrosis....to learn more about this disease, please go to www.cff.org that is the cystic fibrosis foundation home.
