Thursday, May 19, 2011

Cystic Fibrosis Awareness


May is Cystic Fibrosis (CF) awareness month. One of the Smarties, Paige, has CF and her mum emailed Mrs N a link to a great video about it. We watched it in class today, then asked Paige lots of questions! These are some of the things we learned from her:

  • She has a portacath under her arm, which makes it easier for her to receive her medicine when she's in hospital.
  • She needs to take enzyme tablets whenever she eats, because her body's enzymes don't work properly to digest her food.
  • She needs to eat high kilojoule foods, such as potato chips, chocolate and cake to stay healthy.
  • Children with CF can't play with, or be in the same class as, other children with CF because they can transfer germs to each other and get sick.
  • She coughs a lot and sometimes needs to cough up mucus from her lungs.
  • CF is not contagious, which means that you're born with it and can't catch it from anyone else.
  • Paige loves going to hospital because she gets to lay in bed and she gets to do lots of arts and crafts and play games.
Paige thinks there are some good things about having CF and some not-so-good, but she doesn't know any different, so she's happy! 

Love from The Smarties and Mrs N

1 comment:

  1. I find this post very interesting and informative. I hope The Smarties enjoyed learning about Cystic Fibrosis.

    Ask her about the peg in her stomach.

    Paige's Granny

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