CF Happens

Sometimes in life CF (Cystic Fibrosis) happens…pun intended

recent posts

  • Chapter 3 – Denial & Guilt

    “Playing the Cards Life has Dealt” 

    Denial is a common feeling when dealing with a genetic incurable disease.  The first people to deal with the denial and guilt are the parents when they get the news that their child has Cystic Fibrosis, a progressive incurable disease.  Most all parents leave the doctor’s office after receiving the diagnosis in a fog of “this can’t be real.”

    Now a days most all parents/family members go to “Dr. Google” to find out what the World Wide Web has to say about CF and what it entails.  By “Dr. Google” I mean they go to google.com and enter Cystic Fibrosis and start reading everything that their little brain can retain, all the good and bad.  The bad being what sticks with them.  As time goes on the parents should educate themselves from reputable sites like www.cff.org.  Also speaking with other parents of CFers and people with CF will help them know they are not alone and they can do this.  Your CF clinic should be able to help you get in contact with others.

    Some family members never get over the denial and/or guilt that their child/sibling/grandchild/niece/nephew/cousin/etc. has CF or whatever disease they are dealing with.  Thus the reason that CFers can feel like they are a burden on those in their life.

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  • Chapter 2 – A Day in the Life

    “Playing the Cards Life has Dealt”

    My day begins by doing a breathing treatment along with airway clearance.  I used the ThAIRapy Vest up until July of 2010.  I received the Respritech-Smart Incourage Vest in July of 2010.  They are both a device and system for clearing excess mucus from lung airways (bronchi and bronchioles).  It uses a compressor to inflate and deflate the vest rhythmically at timed intervals and thus imposes high frequency chest wall oscillations that are transferred to the lungs. These oscillations thin thixotropic airway mucus, facilitating its removal by coughing.

     (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThAIRapy_Vest)

    I use a nebulizer to inhale my aerosolized medications.  I do breathing treatments four times a day.  I like to call it “smoking my pipe” and doing the “shake shake.”  Breathing treatments take anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes, possibly longer depending on what medicines I am inhaling.

    Postural drainage and chest percussion (PD & P) also called postural drainage and clapping (PD & C) is another airway clearance technique.  We like to call clapping, “beating,” no not in a bad way but that is basically what is happening when doing PD & C.  There a few other ways to do airway clearance such as; the Flutter Valve, Accapella, Incentive Spirometer, percussor (“vibrator”), Intrapulmonary Percussive Ventilation (IPV), The Frequencer, breathing and coughing exercises.  The goal of airway clearance is to loosen up the secretions in the lungs and make them easier to cough out.

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