Picks-at-Flies's Cystic Fibrosis Blog

I suffer from the genetic condition Cystic Fibrosis. I generally keep myself comparatively well with Western antibiotics (and steroids, and vitamins and...), Osteopathy (generally to tackle tightness on the lungs) and Acupuncture. Unfortunately I tend to lose track of how I was behaving this time last year so I have started this blog to help me keep track of things. You are also welcome to look. For more on Cystic Fibrosis see the CF Trust website http://www.cftrust.org.uk.

Articles: Chinese medicine, CF and Me :=: Another year on :=: Top ten ways of staying healthy
Reference: Description of herbs :=: List of herbs :=: About this blog

Entries

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August 2006
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December 2005
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April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
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December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004

Links

> pwcf.com
A "fan" site created by People With CF. Highly recommended.

> CF Trust
Official site for this excellent British charity. Includes extremely well populated forums - highly recommended.

> What is Cystic Fibrosis?
A pictorial guide to the key parts of CF and to living with it.

> Cystic Fibrosis Medicine
A somewhat thin internation site for CF patients and specialists.

Other blogs

> Breath of Life
Another CF blog, rather more complete than mine!

> Cystic Fibrosis and Me: A Personal Journey
(Clockwatcher sadly passed away 2006; the site seemed to follow him)

I seem to have lost my links to other CF blogs. If you want yours added, give me an email.

Visit the CF Trust

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WWW This blog
Fri, Jan 21 2005

What is a blog?

A blog, short for weblog, is a public diary. That is, the author publishes daily* entries about what he has done, thought or heard. Livejournals are examples of blogs. Many are about the general lives on the writer, some are opinion and some, like this one, focus on one particular aspect of the writer's life.

* theoretically. Many are not updated so often or so regularly.

About this blog

This blog is a date-ordered record of the treatment and the effects of my health problems. Primarily the is the genetic disease Cystic Fibrosis although it brings with it a lot of baggage. In my case, I also carry Pseudomonas, ABPA and, since 2000, CF-related Diabetes. See pwcf.net for information on these conditions. The nature of illness is that it can be unpleasant to talk about, and although I try to keep it to a minimum there will inevitably be occasional talk of unpleasant things.

I set this blog up in May 2004 after I had my first portacath in. The goal was, and is, to back up my memory with exact dates of events and their details. This serves several purposes, including to let me know time between events and so I can learn better from my past experiences. Not only is my memory not brilliant, but because I use such a complicated combination of treatments it is sometimes hard to keep track of both what I have used and its results on a given situation.

There is another purpose of course to this Blog, that is to let others with CF or carers for these people see the life of a fellow sufferer. The articles on complementary medicine are there for your benefit. If you suffer with CF and wish more contact with people with CF (pwcf), especially if you live in the UK, I suggest that you visit the forums on the CF Trust website.

Who? What? Where?

My real name is Aidan Bowes, I live in Bristol, UK. Despite receiving good treatment from most of the people looking after me, I am deliberately keeping the blog fairly anonymous: the blog is not meant to be a critique of individuals for good or bad; and its general nature will I hope make it more accessible to readers.

You can contact me using any of the Comment links on the Blog. If I knew what I was doing, these links would post your comment straight to the Blog. As it is, they send prompt your computer to send an email to picks-at-flies@werepenguin.co.uk. If you wish to have a comment posted in response to any article or entry, please add, "For publication" to the top of your email. I reserve the right to ignore those containing obscenities.