Treatment for Cystic Fibrosis

People with Cystic Fibrosis take medications for their entire lives to control symptoms and prevent complications of the disease. Treatment programs are tailored to individual needs and depend upon the stage of the disease and which organs are affected. Treatments followed at home generally include:

• tapping or "clapping" the chest and the back vigorously(percussion) or PEP (positive expiratory pressure) Mask Therapy or other forms of chest physiotherapy to help loosen the mucus which clogs the lungs;
• taking pancreatic enzymes with all meals, to aid digestion;
• taking nutritional supplements and vitamins to promote good nutrition;
• taking antibiotics in pill, intravenous (IV), and or inhaled forms, to ease congestion and protect against and fight lung infection;

Faith does not have too take too much medication at this point. As she continues to get older more medication will be added. Most adults take anywhere from 20-40 pills a day. Currently, Faith takes 4 medications.

• Creon (allows her to break fats, protein, and carbohydrates. She has to take this every time she eats).
• Rantidine (helps with reflux. She takes 1.0ml of this twice a day)
• Aquadek (Vitamins A, D, E and K. She takes 1.0ml once a day. Many people with CF have problems when they eat food, making it hard for their intestines to soak up nutrients, especially fat. Vitamins A,D, E and K are unique because they need fat in order to be soaked up by the body, they are called fat soluble vitamins.
• Salt (16 ml per day. Salt is essential for patients with cystic fibrosis for muscle function, nerve cell health and to improve the flow of fluid in cells. Since patients are losing higher than normal levels of it when they sweat, replacing this loss is very vital)

Faith has also started her Physio Therapy (clapping the chest and back vigorously). There are a total of 6 positions. She currently does a minute in each position. Our goal is to work up to 5 minutes in each position twice a day. Chest physiotherapy is important because helps to prevent the thick, sticky lung secretions from blocking the air tubes. This helps to reduce infection and prevent lung damage

                                                   ( A video that demonstrates Physio. She talks for the first few mins of the video, but then proceeds to demonstrate).