Thursday, April 22, 2010

Journal 7


If I had $20,000, I would donate it all to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.


In November of 2009, my niece McKinley was brought into this world. The doctors noticed how small she was and began to do testing on her. They found that she could possibly have cystic fibrosis. This was a big scare to everyone in the family. We didn't even know what this meant for her. We started talking to a family friend whos daughter has cystic fibrosis. This poor baby is constantly having to go to the doctor and constantly having to have surgeries.


The doctor said that McKinley could just be a carrier. This means that she doesn't have cystic firbrosis, but if she were to have children later on, she would need to make sure her partner was not a carrier as well because then their children would definately have cystic fibrosis. After finding this out, my sister, borther-in-law, and my nephew to see if they could possibly have it. To find out that McKinley was just a carrier was amazing news to our family, and that nobody else is a carrier or even has it was even better for us.


Cystic fibrosis is a painful disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of 30,000 children and adults in the United States. A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick , sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections and obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorbing the food.



4 comments:

  1. This sounds like a worthy cause. I think research towards keeping babies from suffering through this would be incredibly worthwhile.

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  3. This sounds like a great charity! I think anything that helps children or babies is worthwhile because they shouldn't have to suffer at such a young age!

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  4. This sounds like such a great cause Shelby! I would definently donate to it. To be able to help stop this from affecting other children and infants would be so amazing. I am glad your niece does not have to suffer through this disease!!

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