False Hope??

I read a friends blog and she brought up an interesting and possibly controversial point with the CF community. You can read her blog on this by clicking HERE.  Will there ever actual be a "CURE FOUND"? I used to believe that I would live to reap the benefits of a cure. I participated in years and years of fund raising and drug trials.  My first instinctive response is one that is quite cynical and "real".  I have lived through facing the failure of the CURE not being there when I needed  it. I got to the end and I looked over the edge and the "cure" was not there to keep me from falling. However, deep down that's not how I really feel. It's true that as we live longer and life beats us up a little we begin to see things for what they really are. But despite that, I never gave up on HOPE.

I always had hope for a cure which motivated me to do what I could to stay healthy and active so "when the cure was found" I would still benefit from it. . . . I also lived for the idea that 'I could beat CF'. I believed with my whole being, that I could somehow exercise and treatment my CF from ever stopping me or slowing me down.  Now of course, I see CF for the monster it becomes despite my best efforts. BUT I lived my life and made choices based on having hope and optimism. I honestly believed I could conquer anything including CF. I wouldn't have made it as far in life if I hadn't believed I had control over my fate. If anyone asks me if I think there will be a cure someday, I would say "I hope so" that is an honest answer. I still hope that someday children and adults with CF will not have to get lung transplants. I am thankful that lung transplants are an option. As of right now,  CF will eventually wear down the lungs and there is no "miracle Cure Found" (yet), but at least there is the option of new lungs. When I knew that Cystic Fibrosis had finally caught up to me after 27 years of trying to beat it, I turned to having HOPE for a lung transplant. Hope/Faith in something always makes us become better than we could ever be without it. I like the idea of having hope of new treatments that add more tomorrows. Making life with CF easier and extending quality of life.

As much as I feel like CF is a losing battle. . . . I never allowed myself to really believe that. Living through a transplant makes me see life and CF in a different light. Not right or wrong mostly just different. If hoping for a cure or believing that running marathons and working out will keep CF from killing you and that is what motivates a patient to do their treatments, take their meds and stay very active, then I say to never lose hope in those things! Maybe my optimism is not as 'glittered coated' as it used to be. . .but it's still here & keeps me going!

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