A day with Cystic Fibrosis

A person will never live a completely normal life living with Cystic Fibrosis. Not only are the symptoms hard to deal with, life in general is hard. You have to go through intense physiotherapy, which thins the mucus by deep, vibrating massages which increases the need to cough which gets the mucus up. That you have to complete one, if not more, times a day. If your child has CF the hospital staff will teach you how to perform this, once your child gets older there are techniques to use for them to complete this therapy by themselves. If you have CF you can't have a normal meal, most of your meals are high in protein, low in fat, and supplemented with lots of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes to help with your digestion. The average life expectancy is about 25-30. You would either be constantly on antibiotics to counter-react the lung infections or your in the hospital. Most CF patients are on oxygen to help them breathe. And if your CF is advance then you might have to opportunity to get on an organ transplant list to have a lung transplantation. Another side effect from having CF is that you are more than likely sterile (unable to reproduce). Living with CF is hard and fatal.

Pictures

The CF gene is located on Chromosome 7.

This image shows the blockage of mucus in the child's lungs and airways. This picture shows the blockage of mucus caused by CF. This chart shows that if two carriers of CF have children there is a 25% chance of them getting CF, 25% of being normal, and 50% chance of just being a carrier.

Genetics of CF

Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic diseases inherited by the recessive gene. To inherit CF, a child must inherit two abnormal genes - one from each parent. CF is called an autosomal recessive genetic disorder, because it is located on a non-sex-linked chromosome.

Treatments of Cystic Fibrosis

There are no cures for Cystic Fibrosis at this time. A lot of research is going out to try to find cures through gene therapy. Some of the present treatments (for relief of symptoms) are..

• Improve nutrition by adding supplements that help with digestion
• Antibiotics; to reduce lung infections
• Physiotherapy; which loosens the mucus
• For some patients with advanced CF, lung transplants are an option

Symptoms of CF

Some symptoms of Cystic Fibrosis include..

• Salty-tasting skin; due to excessive sweating
• Persistent coughing sometimes with mucus
• Frequent lung infections (tuberculosis, bronchitis, etc..)
• Shortness of breath
• Not growing/gaining weight even with a good appetite
• Bulky, greasy stools (steatorrhea)
• Clubbing (rounding of the fingers and toes.

Definition of Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is an inherited disease that affects breathing and digestion. Most symtoms of CF appear shortly after death. Most of the symtoms include breathing difficulties, faulty digestion, respiratory infections due to mucus accumulation, and excessive loss of salt in sweat. In the past, most people diagnosed with CF died in their childhood, now with present day technology, people can live to their 20s or longer.