CF Awareness Month Blog- Diagnosis

I have an unusual diagnosis story in that I was diagnosed as a teenager. I always had a mysterious cough that often came at night. Nothing would stop this cough and despite seeing numerous doctors nobody could figure out exactly what was wrong. There were lots of "educated" guesses such as allergies or asthma, but nothing made my cough go away.

When I was in 7th grade my family moved across the country. When I started going to school in my new town I had to ride my bike because our small town didn't have a bus system. I had no problem biking, but once I got to first period I would start coughing. In fact, I would cough throughout the entire period to the point that I often couldn't pay attention. By second period my cough would disappear and I would be back to normal. I could not for the life of me figure out what was going on. I had physical education 4th period and was relatively athletic. I was a pretty good runner (at the time, I can barely run 5 feet now!) and made good times when running the mile, but once I finished running my cough would come back. I would continue to cough for the rest of the hour. I remember looking around me after finishing a particularly fast mile and wondering why everyone was huffing and puffing, but I was coughing like crazy!

I went to a new pediatrician who was familiar with CF. Looking at my lack of growth and hearing about this mysterious persistent cough the doctor ordered a sweat test. My mom objected at first since I was tested for CF at birth and came it came back negative. She agreed that we would do it again just to be safe. After a sweat test confirmed I had CF a blood test confirmed I had the most common CF mutation DF508. This is where my CF journey started.