Awareness

This is a hard post but if it moves even one person then it needs to be said. Having a child with lung disease and absolutely no immune system was the hardest part of Libs fight. Heart surgery never kept Liberty down but lung disease did at times and that is why I put my heart into Cystic Fibrosis Awareness.

When Liberty was a baby we were told that her lung disease would take her away from us not her heart defect. I cannot even begin to imagine what it would feel like to never catch your breath. To feel every second of every day as if you were only breathing through a tiny straw. I may not be able to imagine it but I do know what it is like to watch someone you love go through it. I often talk about our happy times, which were many more than the hard times, but the fact is there is another side until a cure is found. I watched my daughter struggle for air many times. Her skin black and swollen, wheezing, gasping, curled up in a ball in my lap. Her staying up three days straight because her oxygen saturation is 60% and the headaches kept her up. Hours of pounding on her back and lungs with percussors, breathing treatments that scared her. New IV's every day, needles bending and breaking off as they hit her tiny bones. Living in hospital beds so long she would lose the muscle strength to walk. Yes Libby never felt sorry for herself, and yes she smiled through most of it, but there are a lot of things behind this curtain that a lot of people do not even know exists but we need a cure. We need people to see our stories. We need people who have not seen it first hand to join those of us who have in supporting research. There is so much one can do to help. If you go to www.cff.org you will find a tab at the top right labeled Get Involved! I ask that in Libs honor you do at least one thing.  It could be to spread awareness for lung disease by word of mouth or wear a cystic fibrosis wrist band, walk in Great Strides or Cycle for Life, donate money or sign up for organ donation, nothing is too small. One day we can make CF stand for CURE FOUND.