CHRISTOPHER TUFFLEY
christopher.tuffley@newssun.com
LORIDA -- "I'd just like to let everyone know what cystic fibrosis is," said Veronica Elerbee, who at 15 will be a sophomore at Sebring High School this fall. "It ain't contagious; don't worry when I cough."
Veronica was diagnosed with the disorder when she was three and a half months old. Having lived with it all these years, she is straightforward and educated about her situation.
"It involves your whole body," she explained to a visitor as they sat in the neat-as-a-pin living room, her mother and step-father sitting to one side.
"That's why I'm so skinny -- people think I'm anorexic."
When Veronica was young, her mother Dawn Cooper said, kids made fun of her, or were afraid of her because she coughed. "She had to grow up in a hurry," said Cooper.
Cystic fibrosis is an inherited, chronic ailment, passed on through recessive genes. That means both parents have to carry the gene in order for the child to be at risk.
The genetic disorder produces a thick, glue-like mucus that clogs the lungs and obstructs the pancreas.
This means that breathing is difficult and lung infections are a serious problem. More than that, however, because of the pancreas, an individual's digestion, growth and development may be affected.
In the 1950s, few children with cystic fibrosis lived to attend elementary school. Now, individuals with the disorder can live into their 40s, and new treatments are being developed all the time.
Veronica has to eat a high-fat, high-calorie diet. "I have to take enzymes to digest the food, otherwise it just passes right through," she said.
There can be other complications.
"It's caused my pancreas to make too much insulin, or not enough, so I'm a diabetic on top of it," she said.
But Veronica is not one to look at a glass as half-empty.
"You can't limit yourself," she said, "but you do have to be careful. Just because I cough don't mean I can't do what other kids do. It just takes me a little longer."
With support and love from her family, Veronica is doing her best to live an action-filled life.
She swims, rides her bike, and loves to fish -- as long as she catches fish after fish. "I cheat and fish near the shore. I hate just sitting there," Veronica said.
She also loves to go mudding on weekends and hog hunting anytime. "I love everything about it," she said with a wide grin, "especially the buggy riding."
Veronica has a crush on John Cena of WWE, and listens to Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. She teases her mother as any 15-year-old will do.
During the school year. she is up by 5:30 a.m. to do her breathing treatments and take her medicines, gets on the bus for school by 7:30, and doesn't get home until 4:30 p.m. Then she has additional breathing treatments and takes more medicine.
She has good days and bad days.
Infections are a real problem and several times a year she has to check into the hospital for two-week stays, undergoing a regimen of intravenous antibiotics. She sees her pulmonologist in Orlando every month.
"I drive her to the doctor," her mother said, "but she handles the conversations."
Veronica laughed, "I love my pulmonologist in Orlando," she said. "She listens well and takes my advice."
Veronca's left lung has basically stopped working and the right lung is more affected.
On July 28, she will go up to Shands Hospital in Gainesville for the in-depth testing it takes to be placed on a transplant list.
"With a lung transplant I'll still have CF," she said, "but I'll be more like a regular kid and no coughing. Also I'll have more energy."
She has absolute faith in Shands. "I'm a Gator fan," she said with a smile, "and Shands is part of the University of Florida."
Sunday, July 11, 2010 - www.newssun.com/0711-ct-Veronica