Eva Markvoort: Woman Blogs Final Days Battling Cystic Fibrosis

cnn.com:

Propped in a hospital bed, Eva Markvoort sat surrounded by her family and said into the camera, "My life is ending."

Markvoort had cystic fibrosis, an incurable disease that causes mucus to accumulate in the lungs. For nearly four years, she narrated an unvarnished blog about life with a terminal disease.

Read the whole story: cnn.com

Comments

[LeftCoastLefty]

12:44 AM on 05/20/2010

This is a very tough story for me to read. My 8 yr old daughter has CF. I have a very hard time finding support on-line because so many sites are overrun by moms spouting 'God is good...he gained 8 ounces this week' kind of stuff. I get the need to try to find meaning in this horrible disease..it just doesn't help me. If God was 'good'...CF wouldn't exist. I get through the day by convincing myself that a cure will exist by the time her lung function begins to fail. And we work very hard every day to keep her lung function normal. Just breathe.

[glockman]

07:41 PM on 04/27/2010

What is striking to me is that most people don't really understand the movements available while living because they don't think about them consciously. And they don't think about them consciously because they are too busy with those things that are meaningless.

Breathing, real breathing, takes conscious effort. Mr. Markvoort learned that. And I learned that when I was nine, battling cancer for nearly three years. But it was a battle I learned to welcome because my victory taught me to feel the dust moving across my face of mornings.

I try to convey what I learned to others every day. I can't imagine leaving without trying to help others see with their hands. And I can't imagine leaving without having others show me more of what my hands can do. Ms. Markvoort has given me more hands with which to grab hold and shake those movements.

Thank you.

[TheIndependenceParty]

04:54 PM on 04/27/2010

The concept of "dying" is a perspective for survivors, and not patients such as Eva. In the end she lived, and lived and lived, until she could no longer. Only that boundary she crossed was death. Young people like Eva, and my dear friend Rachel Williams, who died March 10th of Pulmonary Fibrosis, waiting for a double lung transplant, ... are great teachers to us all. Their thirst for the pure joy of being with others, communicating and being "normal" despite restrictions, have amazed me since I first worked with young CF patients in St. Louis in 1974.

To Eva and Rachel, and all who face what they did, ... So well done. I was honored to know and love Rachel, and now to read of Eva. What fine brave women they became! What an example they set for a way to live.

Thanks to you both!