BiographyAnnabelle is our second child, she is also our second child with Cystic Fibrosis.
After having Imogen our first child who was diagnosed with CF through the heel prick test at 5 weeks old we decided we would like a sibling for her, we knew we had the same 1 in 4 chance that our next child would have CF but the odds of not being dealt the CF card seemed pretty good being a 3 in 4 chance. We had no testing done during pregnancy as it would have made no difference to us we would have kept the baby either way.
Annabelle was born a week early and seemed healthy and was thriving from day 1. Unlike her sister she put on weight, nappies were a normal colour and not the terrible green colour we had from Imogen. She was also quite settled between feeds and not feeding constantly like Imogen did so we had pretty much convinced ourselves she was free of CF. This all changed when she was just over 2 weeks old when our Cystic Fibrosis nurse had managed to speed up the results of her heel prick test and it had come back positive that she did have CF. I thought I'd be ok with it this time round but we were equally as devastated as the first time and I felt guilty that we had chosen to take the risk and subject another child to this horrible condition.
We picked ourselves up quicker this time round and put everything we can into keeping our girls well until that much needed cure comes along.
Annabelle is an absolute delight and such a happy, smiley little girl even at only 10months old. She lights up when Imogen enters the room and they are the best of friends already, I only hope this carries on for life and that they will always be a great support for each other.
They both attend clinic every two months in Ysbyty Gwynedd Hospital in Bangor, North Wales for check ups with their consultant, Dietician, Physiotherapist and CF nurse specialist. Annabelle has had a few bad coughs and colds in her first winter mainly due to Imogen starting nursery school and bringing all the nasty germs home so she's had a fair few courses of extra antibiotics on top of her daily ones which she has to take for life along with multi vitamins, Vitamin E, sodium chloride and creon enzymes which help her digest the fat from her food, without which she would almost certainly suffer from malnutrition.
CF is no easy ride for the patient or their families but we will fight it every day to keep our girls as well as possible and help them live a life as normal as possible.
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