Mary read a book to the kids about salt.. because salt is important for sustaining our lives. It is also important to a person with cystic fibrosis. If you lick Mary's skin it would be very salty to you. Actually that was one way her mom knew she had this disease. Sometimes Mary has to eat something salty to help her feel better. We learned that this disease can effect other organs in your body like your spleen and liver.
It takes alot of daily mangement of medicines ( as I shared before) and breathing treatments as well as something she shared about today. She was actually "sick" today when she came... meaning she was not feeling well. She was more tired and coughing more with a slight fever on Monday... She said it was the beginning of a lung infection. To help her manage these infections that she gets she has a port in her chest where she can start her IV meds... and once a month she has to clean her port out. Today she showed us how she does it... We were all facinated by how easily she was able to do these things for herself. The port was placed surgically in 2005 and every month she has to clean it but inserting a sterile butterfly needle and salt solutions and heparin into the port... so it stays open for whenever she needs to get IV meds... She was fairly healthy until the age of 11 . She has shared very openly with us about her daily life with CF and I am amazed at all she has to do to breath more easily and to stay healthy. We have had lots of great discussions about this disease and why things like this happen... and always I am humbled by her precious spirit and love of the Lord.
God knew how sweet our summer would be sharing it with Mary .
she sure sounds like a special girl. You ever notice it's usually the ones who have the daily 'struggles' that are usually the most compassionate?
ReplyDeleteYour family is indeed blessed to have her for the summer :)