Fall 2002 ~ Newsletter

Hope: A National Perspective

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From The Editor

by Brett Vebber

For those of you reading Heart 2 Heart for the first time, I hope that this has been an encouraging issue for you.  The first time we hear the words terminal, sick, or disease, we think the worst.  Fears are stirred because we may feel out of control, perhaps for the first real time in our life.  I know Cystic Fibrosis causes me to continually live knowing that I am not always in control.

I have learned through the years that hope does not happen with the absence of fear, but one must have hope to walk through the fear or in spite of the fear.  Many people put their hope in the Lord, in getting better, family, striking the jackpot; but regardless, one needs to examine the deep longing of one's heart regarding hope. 

Our last issue was also on hope, and we looked at people from our local area.  This edition is taken from people across the nation.  Whether the reader is newly diagnosed or becoming an adult, hope is an issue a person with Cystic Fibrosis must fight to maintain.

Some trials begin with a newly diagnosed child, yet others struggle with the affects of CF in adulthood.  My parents grew up with a fear of my ability to work, get insurance and other issues that I later learned to share the same fear.  The encouraging season we live in today gives hope because of new laws and medicine discovered or invented to allow for a longer and more productive life.  This alone should bring hope to families in the midst of their fear.  The author of this newsletter hopes (no pun intended) that this has been very encouraging - understanding cystic fibrosis may cause unusual circumstances is important, but one can still live a life above the circumstances.

Heart 2 Heart is written to educate and encourage families with cystic fibrosis, equipping them with information and ideas, and assisting them to train their children to lead productive lives.  We pick one topic each issue and go discuss each topic, offering a perspective of staff, parents, and patients.  This issue was on hope.  The next issue will be for siblings of CF patients. Are siblings affected by having a brother or sister with CF?  How?  What can parents do to make sure it is healthy vs. unhealthy?  Other issues Heart 2 Heart has covered are: Education, Depression, How to Tell When a Child is Sick, Difficulties of Having CF, Infection Control, Lung Transplant, and more.  You can view this previous issues at CFHeart2Heart.  

Please write us if you have a question or comment to pose in the next, or any upcoming edition.  Mail your ideas to:

 CFHeart2Heart / CFAlabama

Children’s Hospital, ACC

Suite 620

Attn:  Brett Vebber

1600 7^th Avenue South

Birmingham, AL 35233

 or e-mail me at: BVebber@peds.uab.edu

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