Cystic Fibrosis
Samantha Smith
Overview
Inhertied
Research
Symptoms
Early symptoms: Salty skin when kissed or the baby doesn't pass stool when first born
Frequent coughing that brings up thick mucus (sometimes bloody), gets pneumonia, or bronchitis easily, develop growths in nose (may need surgery), intestines cant absorb fats or proteins, intestinal blockage sometimes, may have poor growth and weight gain, men can't reproduce, women have a hard time getting pregnant, when sweating you lose a lot of salt which makes you dehydrated, tiredness, weakness, low blood pressure, heat stroke, rarely death
Test and Treatment
To determine if you have CF, is by doing the sweat test. The sweat test takes some of the sweat from your body and test the salt levels to see if they are high or normal. They can also take some blood or saliva from a mother wanting to get pregnant and test it if they have the CF carrier gene.
Some therapy they could do for a person with CF is by doing some Chest Physical Therapy. They could have the person lay on there stomach and have them pound on your chest until you cough up the mucus or there is a vest you can wear that has a vibrating type motion and that can loosen up the mucus.
You can also take medications to help with fighting infections in the lung and other organs. They may have you doing breathing treatments to help open up the lungs and loosen the mucus also.