{"id":1439,"date":"2017-07-31T02:40:46","date_gmt":"2017-07-31T02:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=1439"},"modified":"2021-01-07T18:56:32","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T18:56:32","slug":"dealing-with-cystic-fibrosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/dealing-with-cystic-fibrosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing With Cystic Fibrosis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/dealing-with-cystic-fibrosis\/#risky\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20170721ff\/20170730-800px-Delano_Minnesota_5-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\" \/><\/a>A &#8220;Benefit for Teri (Sanden) Starkey&#8221; notice was on the Our Lady of Angels bulletin board this Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The event was Saturday, July 29, and in Litchfield; a town south and a bit east of here, about an hour and half away.<\/p>\n<p>I saw the notice a day late to do anything by Saturday, but figure I could pass along what I learned.<\/p>\n<p>She has cystic fibrosis, and needs new lungs. The clinic in her area wouldn&#8217;t or couldn&#8217;t do the procedure.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is that an outfit in North Carolina will. However, getting a chance to keep her alive means raising money to move her to North Carolina, plus her two kids and husband. That&#8217;s something like a thousand miles away.<\/p>\n<p>My guess is that the family has above-average medical expenses, too.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s pretty much all I know. A little additional information clipped to the notice helped me find these links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lungs4lifefoundation.org\/\">www.lungs4lifefoundation.org<\/a><br \/>\nLungs4Life Foundation<br \/>\n15101 Birch St.<br \/>\nOmaha, NE 68116<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/business.litch.com\/events\/details\/new-lungs-4-life-benefit-for-teri-sanden-starkey-7544\">New Lungs 4 Life Benefit for Teri (Sanden) Starkey<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nLitchfield Area Chamber of Commerce (July 29, 2017)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fox9.com\/news\/265703199-story\">Minnesota woman moving to North Carolina for risky double lung transplant<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nPaul Blume, KMSP\/Fox9 News (July 4, 2017)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t know about the Lungs4Life Foundation before today, and haven&#8217;t learned anything more than what&#8217;s on part of their website. It looks like a good idea, though. No pressure.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"cystic\"><\/a>Cystic Fibrosis<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cystic_fibrosis#Pathophysiology\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20170721ff\/20170730-Cysticfibrosis01-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\" \/><\/a>Cystic fibrosis doesn&#8217;t kill folks, not exactly. Folks affected by it often die from infections or other trouble in their lungs.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a genetic glitch that probably showed up about five millennia back.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists started noticing connections between not-obviously-related disorders and deaths in the 19th century.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dorothy_Hansine_Andersen\">Dorothy Hasine Anderson<\/a> put the pieces together and described it in 1938.<\/p>\n<p>We can&#8217;t cure cystic fibrosis yet. There&#8217;s some promising gene therapy research in progress, but that won&#8217;t help folks who need new lungs now.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/dealing-with-cystic-fibrosis\/#1\">1<\/a><\/sup> Happily, we&#8217;ve been getting better at organ transplants. It&#8217;s not &#8216;just routine,&#8217; though.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"risky\"><\/a>&#8220;Risky Double Lung Transplant&#8221; in the News<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Delano,_Minnesota\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20170721ff\/20170730-800px-Delano_Minnesota_5-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">(From AlexiusHoratius, via Wikimedia Commons, used w\/o permission.)<\/span><br \/>\n(Delano, Minnesota.)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fox9.com\/news\/265703199-story\">Minnesota woman moving to North Carolina for risky double lung transplant<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nPaul Blume, KMSP\/Fox9 News (July 4, 2017)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A Delano, Minnesota woman with cystic fibrosis is fighting for her life. And with options running out, she&#8217;s set to move her family more than 1,000 miles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Teri Starkey needs a double lung transplant, and if that&#8217;s not risky enough, she has a condition that could attack the new organs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&#8216;It&#8217;s like when you have the flu,&#8217; Teri said. &#8216;You are knocked out for a week, and you think you are dying. That&#8217;s a good portion of my life.&#8217;&#8230;&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Transplanted lungs or other organs will be affected by biochemical effects of the defective gene in other parts of the body.<\/p>\n<p>But a transplant can give folks with cystic fibrosis, like Teri, a few more years of life.<\/p>\n<p>I see that as a good idea. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/using-vaccines-wisely\/#health\">July 21, 2017<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/dna-and-cancer\/#healthy\">March 31, 2017<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/face-transplant-at-mayo\/#replacement\">February 24, 2017<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Life and health are both gifts from God. Taking good care of them is a good idea, within reason. Making either my highest goal would not. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s2c2a5.htm#2288\">2288<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s2c2a5.htm#2289\">2289<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Organ transplants are &#8216;within reason,&#8217; if expected benefits outweigh the risks. We&#8217;re told that donating organs after death &#8220;&#8230;is a noble and meritorious act&#8230;&#8221; We&#8217;re also told that killing someone and breaking them down for parts is a bad idea, and we shouldn&#8217;t do it. (Catechism, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s2c2a5.htm#2296\">2296<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>That makes sense to me.<\/p>\n<p>Other &#8216;health&#8217; posts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/using-vaccines-wisely\/\">Using Vaccines Wisely<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(July 21, 2017)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/good-intentions\/\">Good Intentions<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(May 12, 2017)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/face-transplant-at-mayo\/\">Face Transplant at Mayo<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(February 24, 2017)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/different-sorts-of-dead\/\">Different Sorts of &#8216;Dead&#8217;<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(November 11, 2016 )<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/polio-zika-and-using-our-brains\/\">Polio, Zika, and Using Our Brains<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(August 21, 2016)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><sup><a name=\"1\"><\/a>1<\/sup> More:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wikipedia\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cystic_fibrosis\">Cystic fibrosis<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A &#8220;Benefit for Teri (Sanden) Starkey&#8221; notice was on the Our Lady of Angels bulletin board this Sunday. The event was Saturday, July 29, and in Litchfield; a town south and a bit east of here, about an hour and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/dealing-with-cystic-fibrosis\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[26,8,29,22],"class_list":["post-1439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-being-catholic","tag-genetics","tag-health","tag-medicine","tag-science"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Dwtw-nd","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1439"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1526,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions\/1526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}