31 Days of May the CF Way - Day 28 In Q and A part 1

1.What is the course of life for a typical CF person, if there be such a thing?

The sticky mucus in cf lungs is a breeding ground for bacteria, which causes infection, which causes irreversible scarring. The scarring becomes worse and worse and eventually the lungs don't work well enough to support life. So, I guess there is a gradual decrease in lung function. How quickly this happens varies from person to person, even with siblings.

2.You mentioned that there's a particularly nasty bacteria that usually makes an appearance, and current life expectancy is somewhere around 30 - are there any/many restrictions within their lives (eg can't work the lungs too hard with intense sport), apart from carefully monitoring their diet/enzymes, taking loads of pills, and more frequent hospital admissions?

The particularly nasty bacteria is pseudomonas. Which seems to damage the lungs quite significantly. I don't believe that there are many restrictions, until their lungs function becomes lower and they require oxygen.

3.Are certain sports recommended for children with CF?

Recently I was speaking with a nurse who had been working with children with CF for twenty years what the biggest difference is now to when she started. She said the drugs that were being/had been developed, but also the exercise that was being encouraged now that hadn't been in the past. We have been specifically encourage to get El swimming (which we did over summer) and jumping on the trampoline (we have a mini tramp), but anything that gets their heart pumping and their lungs working to move that sticy gunk is fantastic.

4.What is the average life expectancy for someone with CF?

Life expectancy in Australia for people with CF is now 35 years. I'm not really sure if this is an average figure or not, but I believe the average is around mid 30's.

Well, that's it for this post. If you have any more questions or I haven't answered these questions well enough, let me know so that I can put it in my next post.