Recently on Facebook status on the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation page, there was news of IPF Awareness Week. I had promised for the 21st on “Do Something for IPF Awareness Day” to write up a blog post. My mom passed away on June 14, 2009 from Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.
Normally I review books and post news about my writing, but I wasn’t able to find a book about Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in any of my local bookstores. The only place I was able to find any books about the disease was on Amazon. However, I should also note that there are very few good resources from Googling.
Back when my mom was alive, my family didn’t know about some of the options for treating the illness. My mom had went from doctor to doctor with very little information to what was ailing her. It wasn’t until I was in 2nd and 3rd year at Peace College that we even learned what the disease was; before that my mom had been showing early symptoms of IPF for about 4 or 5 years.
I hope that more research would be done to prevent more families from experiencing what IPF did to my mom. Prior to 2009, my mom had been on medicine to help prevent the damage to her lungs. For a while it seemed like the disease was halted; however it failed when my mom needed to be put on oxygen. Once my mom was put on oxygen, she began to go downhill.
From the time term ended in May, I could see drastic changes in my mom. My mom used to be very independent until the disease took over. It was heartbreaking to see her in the hospital everyday for the last two weeks of her life. I can only pray that she’s not in pain anymore, and that other children don’t lose their parents to the disease.
