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Odd behavior of girlfriend with CF

Question
Friendly Greetings,

My girlfriend is from the USA, I am myself from The Netherlands. My girlfriend claims she has a heavy form of CF and won't make the age of 26 (currently 24 years old). Also she claims with this she needs to go to the hospital all the time and even gets hospitalized for most weekends and sometimes even the whole week. With the information I found so far, I could assume this could be correct. However the story continues.

She also claims she needs to work on her school and homework, while having CF and that it takes her all day up to deep in the night. She claims to do this so she is sooner done with school and then perhaps travel to my country and study further here. A possibility, but not really a fact.

She claims that she is very sexually active, but claims with this that she is not cheating on me. Well, this might be a question of trust I guess. But all for a reason that i add this, Ill explain later in this message.

She also claims that she can beat marines twice her size (she is living on a US military base due to her father being there, so no training or real skills for this). Well this is very odd, she herself is just 5"2 tall and she really doesn't have much muscles to show for. Besides that CF should make her weaker like my own Asthma does with me.

She plays a lot of PC games, which require a lot of mouse usage and typing. Not strange on it's own, but for someone with a heavy form of CF... shouldn't that be near to impossible? And for that matter, she works with programs that need high concentration, she makes things for games. such as tools, walls, and such that is visible for the players in the game. Something rather odd if you ask me with CF, but please do correct me if I am wrong in this.

Her drawings she makes on her PC using a special pad to draw on, look stunning and pretty much flawless. Now, this seems to me a nice thing to do. But I find it very odd

Now there are a few other odds and ends that are very strange for someone with CF, but more of a private matter. Now I got a tip from a American man, around our age, that claims that if she really is that far with her CF, she should be in a hospital and even unable to play games, make such things, do so much sex, etc. He even said that she most likely would be in the hospital 24/7 unable to do much at all.

Now I wish to ask for help in this, to understand this all whether she is right, or these feelings of something being wrong is right. Could I please get for each part a detailed answer, preferred in English. I love her and all, but I can't stand lying and I am not a fool that just buys all this without making sure it is true or not. Thank you in advance.

Kind regards,

J. M.
Answer
Dear J

Cystic fibrosis is a complex condition with a wide range of symptoms. Patients with CF take a whole range of medications to manage their condition and also have to do daily physiotherapy to clear their lungs as well as regular physical activity and/or exercise.

Patients with CF tend to get infections and these are often treated in hospital. As the condition deteriorates patients will have to spend more and more time on treatments (often in hospital)- Eventually the majority of patients with CF will die from respiratory failure. Despite this many patients manage many aspects of normal child and adult life and as you describe, go to school, study, work on PCs and have intimate relationships and often their own families.

It is hard to ascertain from your communication what your exact question is and also this site is dedicated to giving very important expert advice on CF. Therefore I can say that patients with CF can undertake many aspects of daily life just as you have described. If you have any issues to do with the trustworthiness of the information your girlfriend is sharing with you then you should discuss these with her- it is not the remit of this site to provide advice on these aspects of relationships. I hope this is helpful

Best wishes

Judy Bradley (Adult CF Centre Belfast)

08.06.2011
The answer is edited by: Prof Judy Bradley