31 Days of May the CF Way - Day 21 Social Awkwardness

This relates to silly comments other people have made about your child.

The first occasion that springs is when we met an elderly friend of a friend of mine, who had been told that El had cystic fibrosis. She said, "she looks alright for someone who will probably never walk." Um what??? I think she must have mistaken cystic fibrosis for something else! EL was only a few months old and I was completely shocked and probably didn't handle the situation very well! She certainly left with a lot more knowledge of CF then she arrived with!!

Another occasion was quite recently when we were with a group of friends and an 7 year old told El "go away, I don't want to catch your disease!" At the time I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! I did ask the child to clarify what she meant, and the child said, "She didn't want to go to hospital like El." I explained that you couldn't catch her "disease" and that it was called CF for short. The child was then perfectly happy to be around El!

It is hard for people to understand CF, because often times the child looks so well. Even I look at her sometimes and go, how can there be so much wrong? I do try to understand the things that people say from their perspective and hope that I am not too prickly when people say inappropriate things!