CFers work their asses off taking care of themselves, taking several pills a day, doing multiple chest therapy treatments daily, exercising when they don't feel well, visiting with doctors, etc, etc, etc. And all this to ultimately still end up in the hospital, having more complications come on (asthma, CFRD, weakened bones, vitamin deficiency), needing organ transplants, etc., etc., ETC.!
So why work so hard at staying healthy if CF will most likely take charge and mess everything up?
Well, why does one buy car insurance or home insurance? I mean in these cases, we don't know if we'll be in a car accident or that our home may get damaged, but we purchase it just in case something happens. In the case of a CF, we actually know what can possibly occur so the only insurance is to do everything possible to take care of oneself to help elongate the CF road it trudges along. I mean, why shorten that road and allow CF to speed up to it's final destination?
That's right...we must go out of our way to add speed bumps, road blocks, pot holes to the CF highway. If CF speeds up, give it a ticket and a super, high, outrageous fine! Hell, play bumper cars with it and cause it to fall off a cliff to it's ultimate doom! Do whatever it takes to keep CF from causing more damage.
We recently got notice that Andrea cultured pseudomonas again. This is her 4th or 5th time testing positive with it. When I got off the phone with the nurse I was dreading telling Andrea, the news but when I did tell her I was shocked by her response..."YES!" she replied with a bit of excitement. I gave her a puzzled look and she responded, "It's not that I'm happy I have pseudomonas, I'm just happy that we now know the reason behind my months and months of coughing." I tell you, this girl never ceases to amaze me. She is so right-on-target with that kind of attitude.
We do have more than an inkling of what we're up against and what we have to do to 'elongate that CF highway'! So pass me that jack-hammer or bull-dozer, bring on the cement truck and under construction/detour signs...we have our work cut-out for us to make CF take a long-ass time, or better yet, make CF NEVER reach it's final destination!
Who remembers the Wacky Races cartoons? :) |
This blog helped remin me that we all have that final destination and we need to work at not giving it a fast pass as well. Of course we don't have all challenges that CFers do by any means. Not even close.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I have always felt shame in is in disregarding my health. I read your blogs, posts, listen to you go on all these years about everything my poor niece is faced with and here I am not taking care of myself.
Andrea is an amazing person and everyone can learn so much from her!
Love you guys!
That cartoon was one of my favorites!