My wife has just taken in a couple of people into our home on a temporary basis. An 18 year old boy and an older woman, (not his mother).

The 18 year old boy supposedly has cystic fibrosis.

My wife is bit too naive for her own good and took these people in after about 5 mins of meeting them.

The boy smokes for crying out loud, and they came from a town 200 miles away, and don't know anything about this one. My wife ran into them when they were asking for directions.

They had no bags or equipment with them, and they look and sound like they belong on the Jerry Springer Show.


Consistencies:

The boy looks a few years younger than the age claimed.
The boy is relatively thin.
I have heard him cough briefly once or twice - once after walking up stairs.
Apparently he has pills with him, of which he must take one before eating.
She claims that she needs to consult a doctor tomorrow.


Inconsistencies:

They are both smokers.
The boy looks healthier than you might expect - especially considering that he is a smoker.
The woman is going to the doctor herself alone ??? My wife can't even get the pill without going in personally ???


I realise there are different levels of severity of CF, but are more mild cases that common?

To anyone out there with experience with this condition, does this add up?

Hello ... is this thing on ...?

Actually I am posting on my own thread to get automatically subscribed rather than do it manually.

Sounds like an odd situation; however, time and time again I hear this about my child "He doesn't LOOK sick". As if we're faking. Gee, we have the genetic tests to prove it. You can't really tell if someone has CF just by looking at them.

DS's problems right now are more digestive. He has to take pills/digestive enzymes with each meal to digest his food.

Usually the lungs aren't affected right away. CF is a progressive disease and eventually gets worse and will affect the lungs, breathing...

We do CPT/chest physiotherapy three times a day with a nebulizer. This is to keep things moving in the lungs and to keep infections at bay.

It seems odd to me that he smokes. You think that the dr's would be all over him for that. I am new to cf myself but I know that you aren't supposed to smoke when you have it. Our daughter has cf and the dr's asked if we smoked or if anyone smoked around her because they shouldn't.
It is also weird that she is going to the dr for him. The dr's can't treat and prescribe meds for him if he isin't there. But then again we don't know the situatuation.
Good luck

The thing about the doctor does seem odd, unless they already go to that doctor. Our doctor is in the City 200 miles away and I call all the time and describe symptoms and a lot of times they call in a script for us.

Hi Anthony,

Wow, I feel for you Anthony. Do you have kids of your own as well? Either way, sounds like a houseful!

I have two kids w/ cf, my daughter is 20 yrs old, my son 16. They both look fantastic. Unless you spent alot of time w/ them you would never guess that they are anything other than perfectly healthy. But indeed they both have serious cf symptoms, my daughter more so than my son. The smoking of course is not good, but I've heard nicotine called "the all-purpose drug"; that kid probably has some depression going on as well, given his diagnosis, and dealing with homelessness? prior to living in your home too... perhaps the cigarettes in some way give him a bit of relief emotionally. Both of my kids regularly (2-3 times a yr) melt down about having cf. It is quite a burden to carry all of one's life, like a cloud of doom over you- every day.

Likewise, it probably is wise of you to be somewhat skeptical, who knows, maybe they are con artists. With them living in your house it seems reasonable for the mom to show you some proof of her claim regarding her son.

I wish you many blessings, you've taken on alot.

Kathleen :)