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“My cousin had that once.”
“Oh, so it’s like asthma?”
“Do you need a cough drop?”
“I used to know someone who had that…” *past tense*
So often, when I explain CF to someone for the first time, I get responses like the ones listed above. Frequently, I find it to be quite hilarious, although I must admit that I also find it frustrating at times. One of my favorite responses came from a nurse when I was admitted for an exacerbation over a decade ago. She was brand new to the CF floor and had a lot of questions (which is great). After telling her a bit about it, she looked me dead in the eye and said, “And you’re only 22? Sad. What a short life.” Clearly there was a bit of a misunderstanding, hah!
What is the strangest/funniest response you’ve gotten when telling someone about CF? Do these things frustrate you, or do you also find them to be quite hilarious?
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Indeed the strangest answers or question occur. I had not many of those, because I don’t talk a lot about my health. But the weirdest I can remember was when the ENT of my cf team was temporarily out of order, and I was referred to some substitute ENT in the same hospital. I had some actual complaints at that time and wanted to discuss those. After hearing out my story, she stunned me with the question: ‘and how long do you have this CF?’ She was not a native and didn’t speak Dutch fluently, so there might have been a language problem as well, but still. I finished the consultation patiently out of courtesy, but never returned to her.
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My wife was recruited as a ‘patient’ for the annual Physician’s Exams, exams for doctors wishing to progress to specialist physicians. Candidates must get a detailed history from the patient. At one ‘practice exam’ the candidate asked “when did you get CF?” She immediately knew he knew nothing of CF but that had changed by the end.
Another doctor when he heard she was an exam guinea pig remarked “That’s cruel”, as her case is so complex and large.
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