Cystic Fibrosis or Cycstic Fibrosis?

For the first time in my adult life, I became aware of the disease cycstic fibrosis. Cycstic fibrosis? What is it? I got out my Webster's Dictionary and couldn't even find cycstic fibrosis. Then I got out our medical encyclopedia and couldn't find cycstic fibrosis. So I decided to use my rules of phonics. Would it be spelled sistic fibrosis? No, it's not spelled that way. How about sistic fybrosus? No, not that way either. Then I decided to go online and see exactly what cycstic fibrosis was. It doesn't matter what a rotten speller I am, because my computer will know. After I typed in "cycstic fibrosis" the first question my computer asked me was, "Did you mean cystic fibrosis?" Well, I guess I did.

After finally finding cystic fibrosis, I was astounded. Not only does cystic fibrosis have a confusing spelling, it is a confusing disease. Any one of the symptoms of cystic fibrosis can resemble the symptoms of another disease.

When the doctor diagnosed our son with cystic fibrosis, he told us that our son inherited a defective gene from both my husband and me. But how can that be? My husband and I are both fit and healthy. We always have been. We have two other children, and they don't have the disease. I just don't understand. Did my husband and I not take good enough care of ourselves?

There are many things that are confusing about cystic fibrosis, and most of these things come from a lack of understanding. When cystic fibrosis affects the lungs, we don't understand why it can't be treated like pneumonia. We don't stop to realize that thick mucus is the result of cystic fibrosis, while pneumonia is the result of a bacterial or viral infection. The symptoms may be similar, but the cause is not.

Probably the most confusing thing for me, about cystic fibrosis is I don't understand how it works. I know when I get an infection of any sort, bacterial or viral, I take an antibiotic or sulfa drug and get better. Cystic fibrosis is not like that. We live in a time of medical miracles. We have instant fixes for almost everything. We can even cure some forms of cancer. I guess I just don't understand why we can't do the same thing with cystic fibrosis.

Even though I will probably always have some confusion associated with cystic fibrosis, I will continue to say daily prayers for our medical researchers. I know in my heart that one day we will have our miracle, our cure for cystic fibrosis.