What Is Cystic Fibrosis?
Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic condition that affects over 10,000 people in Britain. People with CF have two faulty CF genes, one from each parent. If two people with one faulty CF gene each have a child then there is a 1 in 4 chance that the child will have CF, a 2 in 4 chance of a the child being a carrier (like their parents) and a 1 in 4 chance of the child being completely unaffected. Most people won't know if they are a carrier unless they have a child, parent or sibling with CF. 1 in 25 people in the UK carry a faulty CF gene.
CF is usually diagnosed at around a month old after the heel prick test that babies in the UK have. If the results are positive with the heel prick test then they will do a sweat test to confirm. I was diagnosed this way, however, these days it is possible to find out during pregnancy if the baby has CF. The tests carry some risks and these tests are usually only carried out in pregnancies with a high risk of CF.
Cystic Fibrosis mainly affects the lungs and digestive system. Having CF means that your mucus is a lot thicker than the average persons, it's super thick and sticky and therfore causes complications with a lot of your organs. People with CF tend to have more problems with their lungs, I think my last lung function was 70% of what someone of my age, height and weight should be able to blow. I also take a medication called Creon (40,000) to help me digest my food.
As a result of CF, I also have a vitamin D deficiency, Osteoporosis, liver disease and Diabetes - although Diabetes could have happened anyway as my Diabetic nurse always said it was more like Type 1 Diabetes than CF related Diabetes so that's what I've always said.
Thanks to CF I have to take many medications and do nebulisers, I may talk about this if people want. Please let me know!
If you want to know more about CF check out the "About CF" page at the top of my blog.
Shannon x
CF is usually diagnosed at around a month old after the heel prick test that babies in the UK have. If the results are positive with the heel prick test then they will do a sweat test to confirm. I was diagnosed this way, however, these days it is possible to find out during pregnancy if the baby has CF. The tests carry some risks and these tests are usually only carried out in pregnancies with a high risk of CF.
Cystic Fibrosis mainly affects the lungs and digestive system. Having CF means that your mucus is a lot thicker than the average persons, it's super thick and sticky and therfore causes complications with a lot of your organs. People with CF tend to have more problems with their lungs, I think my last lung function was 70% of what someone of my age, height and weight should be able to blow. I also take a medication called Creon (40,000) to help me digest my food.
As a result of CF, I also have a vitamin D deficiency, Osteoporosis, liver disease and Diabetes - although Diabetes could have happened anyway as my Diabetic nurse always said it was more like Type 1 Diabetes than CF related Diabetes so that's what I've always said.
Thanks to CF I have to take many medications and do nebulisers, I may talk about this if people want. Please let me know!
If you want to know more about CF check out the "About CF" page at the top of my blog.
Shannon x
Comments
Post a Comment