CF - psychosocial issues

again not my area, but just my food for thought on the part D cliff hanger...

Issue in Pt D: Georgia (15y/o) has stopped her treatments and exercises.

Effect of CF on a adolescents:

• Adolescents will find it difficult to maintain a good social life due to their physical conditions and the fact that they are being controlled by their parents. Parents with children who have CF tend to be overprotective about their child doing certain things.
  These parents may fell that their chronically ill child is more susceptible to the dangers of the world.
• keeping up with school work can be difficult when you have to stay in the hospital for months at a time.
• If your friends have don't know you have Cystic Fibrosis, they will annoy you with questions about everything. They may wonder about your cough or all the pills you take.

this is a quote from the video i watched:

“Growing up has a lot of ups and downs when you have CF. The hardest thing for CF people (and me) I think, is that they want to be a normal person. No vitamins, aerosols, enzymes, Iv's, hospitalizations -- wouldn't that be great. It's hard for a lot of CF kids and even adults to remember that you have to do all those things to stay healthy. No matter what disease or problem you have, you still are a normal person. Another hard thing for me was not growing up as fast as everyone else. I'm not sure if that effects every CF person. But, for me, it sucked. In 8th grade, I only weighed 87 pounds. To me, I felt like a shrimp-- not just in 8th grade, up till about 10th grade. I didn't mature as fast as everyone else either. I hated that. I think I didn't have a lot of self confidence in myself at the time or maybe it wouldn't have mattered.
I always felt nervous taking my pills around other people. Even know when I go out to eat, I wonder what people think (It does not bother me as much now). I know it shouldn't matter, but I think every CF person wonders about it once in a while.”

Shantz