Testimonial: 3 months, the time of the sweat test

Chéri has a mutation, but one that should not cause CF.

That was our hope, a nice mutation, which will give at worst a class 4 or 5 CF.

I refused to have a blood test that would have told us if they had this mutation. It wouldn't have taught me anything more. And if they have it, I am afraid it will close doors for them to be able to take out life insurance. (Not being able to easily take out life insurance myself, we think about it for our children)

Only the sweat test can tell us if they have CF symptoms or not.

Before reaching the guys' 3 months (when the test will be done), darling often licks their necks, to detect if there is a slight taste of salt. Personally, as I over-salt all my food (necessity and small advantage of CF), I no longer really identify what is salty from what is not. Darling's verdict: Well no, these little guys don't taste salty!

So the test.

A pellet collecting sweat is installed on my boys' big, chubby arms (in 3 months, they took full advantage of mom's rich milk, believe me!). We dress them in their winter coats and wait 1 hour until they have kindly sweated.

And we are waiting for the result...

When I was diagnosed, I took 2 sweat tests (2 positives are needed to confirm the diagnosis). I tested the first time at 100 and the second at 79. The test must be greater than 60 units to be positive, between 30 and 60, it is a gray zone and below 30 it is a normal person.

My nurse gives me the result: my first darling tests at 11, the second at 12. Result of a normal person.

What a relief.

I was a bit naive before I had kids when I thought it wouldn't be the end of the world if they had CF themselves.

When you get pregnant, a ball of love grows in your belly, but when you give birth, it's a ball of anxiety that explodes at the same time as the expulsion. Something more important than we have just come out of our bowels, we would give our lives and that of our lover so that these little balls are spared from everything. Now I know how heartbreaking it would have been to give birth to sick children. I know that we would have learned to live with it and that the disease also makes you grow; I say it myself, I would not change anything in my life, the disease gives me a vision of life that I would not have without it.

But how relieved I am not to see my children suffer because of this disease.

‍