More kids?

dasjsmum · Nov 19, 2009

I think, at the end of the day, only you know the answer to your question. Not all cf people suffer, many have perfectly full lives, and many do suffer.

You dont know what life will bring you, and if my children had different outcomes with their cf my opinion would be different.

Knowing that my children have led very 'normal' lives colours my view of the whole thing...I dont hold a lot of guilt about it though, and my children havent really suffered from cf.

Yes, it was very upsetting finding our third child had cf, but I havent agonised over it like Amy's mum has. My kids tell me that they are very happy to be alive, and dont blame us for having them etc.

There's plenty of bad things that can happen in life, you cant always predict anything...I mean, you could have a child with cancer, or lots of other devastating illnesses...

Only you know what is right for you, and no one can predict the outcome for your child.

Having said that, I do believe that some genes do seem to lead to milder outcomes, although not always...my children are G551D x DF508. I noticed others, like Amy, who are very well and have certain gene mixes.

dasjsmum · Nov 19, 2009

I think, at the end of the day, only you know the answer to your question. Not all cf people suffer, many have perfectly full lives, and many do suffer.

You dont know what life will bring you, and if my children had different outcomes with their cf my opinion would be different.

Knowing that my children have led very 'normal' lives colours my view of the whole thing...I dont hold a lot of guilt about it though, and my children havent really suffered from cf.

Yes, it was very upsetting finding our third child had cf, but I havent agonised over it like Amy's mum has. My kids tell me that they are very happy to be alive, and dont blame us for having them etc.

There's plenty of bad things that can happen in life, you cant always predict anything...I mean, you could have a child with cancer, or lots of other devastating illnesses...

Only you know what is right for you, and no one can predict the outcome for your child.

Having said that, I do believe that some genes do seem to lead to milder outcomes, although not always...my children are G551D x DF508. I noticed others, like Amy, who are very well and have certain gene mixes.

dasjsmum · Nov 19, 2009

I think, at the end of the day, only you know the answer to your question. Not all cf people suffer, many have perfectly full lives, and many do suffer.

You dont know what life will bring you, and if my children had different outcomes with their cf my opinion would be different.

Knowing that my children have led very 'normal' lives colours my view of the whole thing...I dont hold a lot of guilt about it though, and my children havent really suffered from cf.

Yes, it was very upsetting finding our third child had cf, but I havent agonised over it like Amy's mum has. My kids tell me that they are very happy to be alive, and dont blame us for having them etc.

There's plenty of bad things that can happen in life, you cant always predict anything...I mean, you could have a child with cancer, or lots of other devastating illnesses...

Only you know what is right for you, and no one can predict the outcome for your child.

Having said that, I do believe that some genes do seem to lead to milder outcomes, although not always...my children are G551D x DF508. I noticed others, like Amy, who are very well and have certain gene mixes.

dasjsmum · Nov 19, 2009

I think, at the end of the day, only you know the answer to your question. Not all cf people suffer, many have perfectly full lives, and many do suffer.

You dont know what life will bring you, and if my children had different outcomes with their cf my opinion would be different.

Knowing that my children have led very 'normal' lives colours my view of the whole thing...I dont hold a lot of guilt about it though, and my children havent really suffered from cf.

Yes, it was very upsetting finding our third child had cf, but I havent agonised over it like Amy's mum has. My kids tell me that they are very happy to be alive, and dont blame us for having them etc.

There's plenty of bad things that can happen in life, you cant always predict anything...I mean, you could have a child with cancer, or lots of other devastating illnesses...

Only you know what is right for you, and no one can predict the outcome for your child.

Having said that, I do believe that some genes do seem to lead to milder outcomes, although not always...my children are G551D x DF508. I noticed others, like Amy, who are very well and have certain gene mixes.

dasjsmum · Nov 19, 2009

I think, at the end of the day, only you know the answer to your question. Not all cf people suffer, many have perfectly full lives, and many do suffer.
 
 You dont know what life will bring you, and if my children had different outcomes with their cf my opinion would be different.
 
 Knowing that my children have led very 'normal' lives colours my view of the whole thing...I dont hold a lot of guilt about it though, and my children havent really suffered from cf.
 
 Yes, it was very upsetting finding our third child had cf, but I havent agonised over it like Amy's mum has. My kids tell me that they are very happy to be alive, and dont blame us for having them etc.
 
 There's plenty of bad things that can happen in life, you cant always predict anything...I mean, you could have a child with cancer, or lots of other devastating illnesses...
 
 Only you know what is right for you, and no one can predict the outcome for your child.
 
 Having said that, I do believe that some genes do seem to lead to milder outcomes, although not always...my children are G551D x DF508. I noticed others, like Amy, who are very well and have certain gene mixes.

Littlemiss · Nov 19, 2009

Hi,

I am the second (of three) kids in my family with CF. What can I say except that I'm glad I'm here, CF or no!

I am well for someone with CF, but my life is certainly not as easy as some, still if CF is the price I pay to be here, that's fine with me.

I can't comment much on how having a child with CF could affect your marriage or anything else (though my parents are still together and happy after 28 years if that means anything).

I am expecting my first child in May next year, my husband is not a carrier of the CF gene so our child should be OK. If I found out now that our baby had CF it wouldn't change anything.

It is your decision in the end, but as a person with CF I am glad my parents made the decision to have me.

AJ

Littlemiss · Nov 19, 2009

Hi,

I am the second (of three) kids in my family with CF. What can I say except that I'm glad I'm here, CF or no!

I am well for someone with CF, but my life is certainly not as easy as some, still if CF is the price I pay to be here, that's fine with me.

I can't comment much on how having a child with CF could affect your marriage or anything else (though my parents are still together and happy after 28 years if that means anything).

I am expecting my first child in May next year, my husband is not a carrier of the CF gene so our child should be OK. If I found out now that our baby had CF it wouldn't change anything.

It is your decision in the end, but as a person with CF I am glad my parents made the decision to have me.

AJ

Littlemiss · Nov 19, 2009

Hi,

I am the second (of three) kids in my family with CF. What can I say except that I'm glad I'm here, CF or no!

I am well for someone with CF, but my life is certainly not as easy as some, still if CF is the price I pay to be here, that's fine with me.

I can't comment much on how having a child with CF could affect your marriage or anything else (though my parents are still together and happy after 28 years if that means anything).

I am expecting my first child in May next year, my husband is not a carrier of the CF gene so our child should be OK. If I found out now that our baby had CF it wouldn't change anything.

It is your decision in the end, but as a person with CF I am glad my parents made the decision to have me.

AJ

Littlemiss · Nov 19, 2009

Hi,

I am the second (of three) kids in my family with CF. What can I say except that I'm glad I'm here, CF or no!

I am well for someone with CF, but my life is certainly not as easy as some, still if CF is the price I pay to be here, that's fine with me.

I can't comment much on how having a child with CF could affect your marriage or anything else (though my parents are still together and happy after 28 years if that means anything).

I am expecting my first child in May next year, my husband is not a carrier of the CF gene so our child should be OK. If I found out now that our baby had CF it wouldn't change anything.

It is your decision in the end, but as a person with CF I am glad my parents made the decision to have me.

AJ

Littlemiss · Nov 19, 2009

Hi,
 
 I am the second (of three) kids in my family with CF. What can I say except that I'm glad I'm here, CF or no!
 
 I am well for someone with CF, but my life is certainly not as easy as some, still if CF is the price I pay to be here, that's fine with me.
 
 I can't comment much on how having a child with CF could affect your marriage or anything else (though my parents are still together and happy after 28 years if that means anything).
 
 I am expecting my first child in May next year, my husband is not a carrier of the CF gene so our child should be OK. If I found out now that our baby had CF it wouldn't change anything.
 
 It is your decision in the end, but as a person with CF I am glad my parents made the decision to have me.
 
 AJ

hmw · Nov 19, 2009

I think there may be a few points I want to add to my post after reading some of the ones that came after mine, because I don't want where I am coming from to be misunderstood. After writing this: I come back up top to apologize for the length of this post!

There has been an enormous strain here, as I posted. But it's not always caused by fighting or disagreeing over care of our child (though that has been an issue, esp before my husband was able to accept that this dx was for real.) It's just the nature of the beast, having this come into your life. It's having a grieving process to go through- and even people who love each other may experience this differently.

Grieving involves periods of anger and a lot of other difficult emotions to process- and there is no way to escape this. Even when you love your mate and family very much (and my husband and I DO) and have good relationships w/ other family, you won't always be at the same place in this process and it can cause strain. And CF is THERE, with known complications, a known prognosis for many who have it, vs. nebulous 'possibilities' of other adverse future events that can transpire in life. There can be a big a difference when it comes to how you process this in your mind. Guilt can be debilitating sometimes. I've come a long way but it was crippling at first.

Doing whatever necessary w/ other family to keep the peace while holding to your own standards which you know to be right in the care of your child is fine- but still can be very hard. What if that means losing contact to a degree with family and friends that you love and have long depended on for support, companionship, etc?

For example: every time someone has the slightest illness, worrying about your child getting sick and having to decide whether or not to stay away from important gatherings, what if someone smokes and won't stop? ...and the list can go on. This can crack the seams of family relationships and can be very hard to predict ahead of time. Even if family relationships stay intact, it's not easy for us to cope with these new limitations on precious family relationships!

And overall, no family expects things to be this way, their dreams of parenthood don't generally include reams of dr appointments and hours spent doing medical treatments and dealing with illness. No prospective parents would choose for their child to have a fatal disease over being healthy. Coping with this is not easy, and having a perfectly healthy child with CF that continues to be perfectly healthy for the long term is not the rule, as much as we would like it to be. This is hard to live with all the time and it will come out in tears and strain and negative emotion at times.

Again- I am not saying at all that none of this is worth it or whatever. But what I am saying is that these factors are real, this is what we live with here, and while of course everyone has their own viewpoint, I do not believe that my family is particularly unique or an extreme example of living with any chronic illness, nevermind one that at this time, and for the foreseeable future, is a fatal one.

The desire to have a family is probably one of the strongest ones that we can have and every family has to make their own choice- and what they decide will be right for them. But like I posted initially, going in well-informed is so vital, to be best able to examine themselves and what is important to them. Then they will be able to be as well-prepared as possible for whatever they feel their biggest challenges might be.

hmw · Nov 19, 2009

I think there may be a few points I want to add to my post after reading some of the ones that came after mine, because I don't want where I am coming from to be misunderstood. After writing this: I come back up top to apologize for the length of this post!

There has been an enormous strain here, as I posted. But it's not always caused by fighting or disagreeing over care of our child (though that has been an issue, esp before my husband was able to accept that this dx was for real.) It's just the nature of the beast, having this come into your life. It's having a grieving process to go through- and even people who love each other may experience this differently.

Grieving involves periods of anger and a lot of other difficult emotions to process- and there is no way to escape this. Even when you love your mate and family very much (and my husband and I DO) and have good relationships w/ other family, you won't always be at the same place in this process and it can cause strain. And CF is THERE, with known complications, a known prognosis for many who have it, vs. nebulous 'possibilities' of other adverse future events that can transpire in life. There can be a big a difference when it comes to how you process this in your mind. Guilt can be debilitating sometimes. I've come a long way but it was crippling at first.

Doing whatever necessary w/ other family to keep the peace while holding to your own standards which you know to be right in the care of your child is fine- but still can be very hard. What if that means losing contact to a degree with family and friends that you love and have long depended on for support, companionship, etc?

For example: every time someone has the slightest illness, worrying about your child getting sick and having to decide whether or not to stay away from important gatherings, what if someone smokes and won't stop? ...and the list can go on. This can crack the seams of family relationships and can be very hard to predict ahead of time. Even if family relationships stay intact, it's not easy for us to cope with these new limitations on precious family relationships!

And overall, no family expects things to be this way, their dreams of parenthood don't generally include reams of dr appointments and hours spent doing medical treatments and dealing with illness. No prospective parents would choose for their child to have a fatal disease over being healthy. Coping with this is not easy, and having a perfectly healthy child with CF that continues to be perfectly healthy for the long term is not the rule, as much as we would like it to be. This is hard to live with all the time and it will come out in tears and strain and negative emotion at times.

Again- I am not saying at all that none of this is worth it or whatever. But what I am saying is that these factors are real, this is what we live with here, and while of course everyone has their own viewpoint, I do not believe that my family is particularly unique or an extreme example of living with any chronic illness, nevermind one that at this time, and for the foreseeable future, is a fatal one.

The desire to have a family is probably one of the strongest ones that we can have and every family has to make their own choice- and what they decide will be right for them. But like I posted initially, going in well-informed is so vital, to be best able to examine themselves and what is important to them. Then they will be able to be as well-prepared as possible for whatever they feel their biggest challenges might be.

hmw · Nov 19, 2009

I think there may be a few points I want to add to my post after reading some of the ones that came after mine, because I don't want where I am coming from to be misunderstood. After writing this: I come back up top to apologize for the length of this post!

There has been an enormous strain here, as I posted. But it's not always caused by fighting or disagreeing over care of our child (though that has been an issue, esp before my husband was able to accept that this dx was for real.) It's just the nature of the beast, having this come into your life. It's having a grieving process to go through- and even people who love each other may experience this differently.

Grieving involves periods of anger and a lot of other difficult emotions to process- and there is no way to escape this. Even when you love your mate and family very much (and my husband and I DO) and have good relationships w/ other family, you won't always be at the same place in this process and it can cause strain. And CF is THERE, with known complications, a known prognosis for many who have it, vs. nebulous 'possibilities' of other adverse future events that can transpire in life. There can be a big a difference when it comes to how you process this in your mind. Guilt can be debilitating sometimes. I've come a long way but it was crippling at first.

Doing whatever necessary w/ other family to keep the peace while holding to your own standards which you know to be right in the care of your child is fine- but still can be very hard. What if that means losing contact to a degree with family and friends that you love and have long depended on for support, companionship, etc?

For example: every time someone has the slightest illness, worrying about your child getting sick and having to decide whether or not to stay away from important gatherings, what if someone smokes and won't stop? ...and the list can go on. This can crack the seams of family relationships and can be very hard to predict ahead of time. Even if family relationships stay intact, it's not easy for us to cope with these new limitations on precious family relationships!

And overall, no family expects things to be this way, their dreams of parenthood don't generally include reams of dr appointments and hours spent doing medical treatments and dealing with illness. No prospective parents would choose for their child to have a fatal disease over being healthy. Coping with this is not easy, and having a perfectly healthy child with CF that continues to be perfectly healthy for the long term is not the rule, as much as we would like it to be. This is hard to live with all the time and it will come out in tears and strain and negative emotion at times.

Again- I am not saying at all that none of this is worth it or whatever. But what I am saying is that these factors are real, this is what we live with here, and while of course everyone has their own viewpoint, I do not believe that my family is particularly unique or an extreme example of living with any chronic illness, nevermind one that at this time, and for the foreseeable future, is a fatal one.

The desire to have a family is probably one of the strongest ones that we can have and every family has to make their own choice- and what they decide will be right for them. But like I posted initially, going in well-informed is so vital, to be best able to examine themselves and what is important to them. Then they will be able to be as well-prepared as possible for whatever they feel their biggest challenges might be.

hmw · Nov 19, 2009

I think there may be a few points I want to add to my post after reading some of the ones that came after mine, because I don't want where I am coming from to be misunderstood. After writing this: I come back up top to apologize for the length of this post!

There has been an enormous strain here, as I posted. But it's not always caused by fighting or disagreeing over care of our child (though that has been an issue, esp before my husband was able to accept that this dx was for real.) It's just the nature of the beast, having this come into your life. It's having a grieving process to go through- and even people who love each other may experience this differently.

Grieving involves periods of anger and a lot of other difficult emotions to process- and there is no way to escape this. Even when you love your mate and family very much (and my husband and I DO) and have good relationships w/ other family, you won't always be at the same place in this process and it can cause strain. And CF is THERE, with known complications, a known prognosis for many who have it, vs. nebulous 'possibilities' of other adverse future events that can transpire in life. There can be a big a difference when it comes to how you process this in your mind. Guilt can be debilitating sometimes. I've come a long way but it was crippling at first.

Doing whatever necessary w/ other family to keep the peace while holding to your own standards which you know to be right in the care of your child is fine- but still can be very hard. What if that means losing contact to a degree with family and friends that you love and have long depended on for support, companionship, etc?

For example: every time someone has the slightest illness, worrying about your child getting sick and having to decide whether or not to stay away from important gatherings, what if someone smokes and won't stop? ...and the list can go on. This can crack the seams of family relationships and can be very hard to predict ahead of time. Even if family relationships stay intact, it's not easy for us to cope with these new limitations on precious family relationships!

And overall, no family expects things to be this way, their dreams of parenthood don't generally include reams of dr appointments and hours spent doing medical treatments and dealing with illness. No prospective parents would choose for their child to have a fatal disease over being healthy. Coping with this is not easy, and having a perfectly healthy child with CF that continues to be perfectly healthy for the long term is not the rule, as much as we would like it to be. This is hard to live with all the time and it will come out in tears and strain and negative emotion at times.

Again- I am not saying at all that none of this is worth it or whatever. But what I am saying is that these factors are real, this is what we live with here, and while of course everyone has their own viewpoint, I do not believe that my family is particularly unique or an extreme example of living with any chronic illness, nevermind one that at this time, and for the foreseeable future, is a fatal one.

The desire to have a family is probably one of the strongest ones that we can have and every family has to make their own choice- and what they decide will be right for them. But like I posted initially, going in well-informed is so vital, to be best able to examine themselves and what is important to them. Then they will be able to be as well-prepared as possible for whatever they feel their biggest challenges might be.

hmw · Nov 19, 2009

I think there may be a few points I want to add to my post after reading some of the ones that came after mine, because I don't want where I am coming from to be misunderstood. After writing this: I come back up top to apologize for the length of this post!
 
 There has been an enormous strain here, as I posted. But it's not always caused by fighting or disagreeing over care of our child (though that has been an issue, esp before my husband was able to accept that this dx was for real.) It's just the nature of the beast, having this come into your life. It's having a grieving process to go through- and even people who love each other may experience this differently.
 
 Grieving involves periods of anger and a lot of other difficult emotions to process- and there is no way to escape this. Even when you love your mate and family very much (and my husband and I DO) and have good relationships w/ other family, you won't always be at the same place in this process and it can cause strain. And CF is THERE, with known complications, a known prognosis for many who have it, vs. nebulous 'possibilities' of other adverse future events that can transpire in life. There can be a big a difference when it comes to how you process this in your mind. Guilt can be debilitating sometimes. I've come a long way but it was crippling at first.
 
 Doing whatever necessary w/ other family to keep the peace while holding to your own standards which you know to be right in the care of your child is fine- but still can be very hard. What if that means losing contact to a degree with family and friends that you love and have long depended on for support, companionship, etc?
 
 For example: every time someone has the slightest illness, worrying about your child getting sick and having to decide whether or not to stay away from important gatherings, what if someone smokes and won't stop? ...and the list can go on. This can crack the seams of family relationships and can be very hard to predict ahead of time. Even if family relationships stay intact, it's not easy for us to cope with these new limitations on precious family relationships!
 
 And overall, no family expects things to be this way, their dreams of parenthood don't generally include reams of dr appointments and hours spent doing medical treatments and dealing with illness. No prospective parents would choose for their child to have a fatal disease over being healthy. Coping with this is not easy, and having a perfectly healthy child with CF that continues to be perfectly healthy for the long term is not the rule, as much as we would like it to be. This is hard to live with all the time and it will come out in tears and strain and negative emotion at times.
 
 Again- I am not saying at all that none of this is worth it or whatever. But what I am saying is that these factors are real, this is what we live with here, and while of course everyone has their own viewpoint, I do not believe that my family is particularly unique or an extreme example of living with any chronic illness, nevermind one that at this time, and for the foreseeable future, is a fatal one.
 
 The desire to have a family is probably one of the strongest ones that we can have and every family has to make their own choice- and what they decide will be right for them. But like I posted initially, going in well-informed is so vital, to be best able to examine themselves and what is important to them. Then they will be able to be as well-prepared as possible for whatever they feel their biggest challenges might be.

babyluke · Nov 19, 2009

I think physically, emotionally and financially CF takes a toll on families. I don't think there is anyway to really be prepared for that and CF is an unpredicatable disease in many ways--siblings with the same mutations can have very different courses and outcomes with their CF.
Having said that--you learn to live with it. We still hate it, but CF does not dominate us. We don't let it. We live a normal, happy life. We have some different challenges and worries and some extra medical stuff, but it is just normal to us. So I think you really have to be aware of your own emotions and what you can handle. My husband and I have 6 adopted children. And people will make comments about how they would not want to adopt a child because you "don't know what you are going to get" and it is our biological child who has CF--that is the ironic part! You can not ensure that you are going to have a perfectly healty child in any circumstances. The difference with CF is that once we are identified as carriers--we are just more aware of our risks. But my husband and I are able to deal with the unknown. We have adopted 4 children with various "special needs" and so for us, it has been a choice we have made being fully aware their will be difficulties . Believe it or not, we have not ruled out the idea of having more children--either by way of birth or adoption. There is not one person on this site who is not truly grateful to have their child, CF or no CF. I think it is just important to know yourself and your marriage and feel confident in that because the rest, in my opinion, is manageable. And our child is pretty involved--has a feeding tube, aresol treatments and his "vest" every day, enzymes before any meal or snack, some other oral meds. every day. He is two and has not grown in bad bugs in his lungs and has no lung damage or anything at this point. He has been hospitalized for IV treatments twice. Those are the major things for us. Hope that helps. God bless.

babyluke · Nov 19, 2009

I think physically, emotionally and financially CF takes a toll on families. I don't think there is anyway to really be prepared for that and CF is an unpredicatable disease in many ways--siblings with the same mutations can have very different courses and outcomes with their CF.
Having said that--you learn to live with it. We still hate it, but CF does not dominate us. We don't let it. We live a normal, happy life. We have some different challenges and worries and some extra medical stuff, but it is just normal to us. So I think you really have to be aware of your own emotions and what you can handle. My husband and I have 6 adopted children. And people will make comments about how they would not want to adopt a child because you "don't know what you are going to get" and it is our biological child who has CF--that is the ironic part! You can not ensure that you are going to have a perfectly healty child in any circumstances. The difference with CF is that once we are identified as carriers--we are just more aware of our risks. But my husband and I are able to deal with the unknown. We have adopted 4 children with various "special needs" and so for us, it has been a choice we have made being fully aware their will be difficulties . Believe it or not, we have not ruled out the idea of having more children--either by way of birth or adoption. There is not one person on this site who is not truly grateful to have their child, CF or no CF. I think it is just important to know yourself and your marriage and feel confident in that because the rest, in my opinion, is manageable. And our child is pretty involved--has a feeding tube, aresol treatments and his "vest" every day, enzymes before any meal or snack, some other oral meds. every day. He is two and has not grown in bad bugs in his lungs and has no lung damage or anything at this point. He has been hospitalized for IV treatments twice. Those are the major things for us. Hope that helps. God bless.

babyluke · Nov 19, 2009

I think physically, emotionally and financially CF takes a toll on families. I don't think there is anyway to really be prepared for that and CF is an unpredicatable disease in many ways--siblings with the same mutations can have very different courses and outcomes with their CF.
Having said that--you learn to live with it. We still hate it, but CF does not dominate us. We don't let it. We live a normal, happy life. We have some different challenges and worries and some extra medical stuff, but it is just normal to us. So I think you really have to be aware of your own emotions and what you can handle. My husband and I have 6 adopted children. And people will make comments about how they would not want to adopt a child because you "don't know what you are going to get" and it is our biological child who has CF--that is the ironic part! You can not ensure that you are going to have a perfectly healty child in any circumstances. The difference with CF is that once we are identified as carriers--we are just more aware of our risks. But my husband and I are able to deal with the unknown. We have adopted 4 children with various "special needs" and so for us, it has been a choice we have made being fully aware their will be difficulties . Believe it or not, we have not ruled out the idea of having more children--either by way of birth or adoption. There is not one person on this site who is not truly grateful to have their child, CF or no CF. I think it is just important to know yourself and your marriage and feel confident in that because the rest, in my opinion, is manageable. And our child is pretty involved--has a feeding tube, aresol treatments and his "vest" every day, enzymes before any meal or snack, some other oral meds. every day. He is two and has not grown in bad bugs in his lungs and has no lung damage or anything at this point. He has been hospitalized for IV treatments twice. Those are the major things for us. Hope that helps. God bless.

babyluke · Nov 19, 2009

I think physically, emotionally and financially CF takes a toll on families. I don't think there is anyway to really be prepared for that and CF is an unpredicatable disease in many ways--siblings with the same mutations can have very different courses and outcomes with their CF.
Having said that--you learn to live with it. We still hate it, but CF does not dominate us. We don't let it. We live a normal, happy life. We have some different challenges and worries and some extra medical stuff, but it is just normal to us. So I think you really have to be aware of your own emotions and what you can handle. My husband and I have 6 adopted children. And people will make comments about how they would not want to adopt a child because you "don't know what you are going to get" and it is our biological child who has CF--that is the ironic part! You can not ensure that you are going to have a perfectly healty child in any circumstances. The difference with CF is that once we are identified as carriers--we are just more aware of our risks. But my husband and I are able to deal with the unknown. We have adopted 4 children with various "special needs" and so for us, it has been a choice we have made being fully aware their will be difficulties . Believe it or not, we have not ruled out the idea of having more children--either by way of birth or adoption. There is not one person on this site who is not truly grateful to have their child, CF or no CF. I think it is just important to know yourself and your marriage and feel confident in that because the rest, in my opinion, is manageable. And our child is pretty involved--has a feeding tube, aresol treatments and his "vest" every day, enzymes before any meal or snack, some other oral meds. every day. He is two and has not grown in bad bugs in his lungs and has no lung damage or anything at this point. He has been hospitalized for IV treatments twice. Those are the major things for us. Hope that helps. God bless.

babyluke · Nov 19, 2009

I think physically, emotionally and financially CF takes a toll on families. I don't think there is anyway to really be prepared for that and CF is an unpredicatable disease in many ways--siblings with the same mutations can have very different courses and outcomes with their CF.
 Having said that--you learn to live with it. We still hate it, but CF does not dominate us. We don't let it. We live a normal, happy life. We have some different challenges and worries and some extra medical stuff, but it is just normal to us. So I think you really have to be aware of your own emotions and what you can handle. My husband and I have 6 adopted children. And people will make comments about how they would not want to adopt a child because you "don't know what you are going to get" and it is our biological child who has CF--that is the ironic part! You can not ensure that you are going to have a perfectly healty child in any circumstances. The difference with CF is that once we are identified as carriers--we are just more aware of our risks. But my husband and I are able to deal with the unknown. We have adopted 4 children with various "special needs" and so for us, it has been a choice we have made being fully aware their will be difficulties . Believe it or not, we have not ruled out the idea of having more children--either by way of birth or adoption. There is not one person on this site who is not truly grateful to have their child, CF or no CF. I think it is just important to know yourself and your marriage and feel confident in that because the rest, in my opinion, is manageable. And our child is pretty involved--has a feeding tube, aresol treatments and his "vest" every day, enzymes before any meal or snack, some other oral meds. every day. He is two and has not grown in bad bugs in his lungs and has no lung damage or anything at this point. He has been hospitalized for IV treatments twice. Those are the major things for us. Hope that helps. God bless.

More kids?

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