Cystic Fibrosis and Recruitment

[KSUViolet06]

Ok, so yet another one of my church camp girls is signed up for rush (at my school).

She happens to have CF. She asked me if her CF would keep her from participating. Knowing her from church camp, she seems to be fairly healthy.

We've never done any all day actvites, so I'm not really sure what someone with CF has to do everyday to stay healthy, and what activites she may/may not be able to do

Does anyone here have any more advice I can give her? Maybe someone here has CF or has experience with a sorority sister who has it.

[dakareng]

If she is in reasonably good health, CF should not preclude her participating in recruitment. She may need to carry medications, including inhalers and will need to keep well hydrated but that goes for anyone in recruitment. If it is especially hot, or cold, she may have need of the inhalers or may cough more. If recruitment on that campus requires walking long distances, she'll need to let her recruitment counselor know if she needs transportation. She may or may not. I went to college with a woman with CF who was a varsity cheerleader (division 1-a school)-- obviously she would not have had problems. CF varies in severity and this young lady is the best judge of what she needs.

ps. I'm a nurse who has cared for children with CF for many years. Their care, and life expectancy has improved tremendously over that time.

[SOPi_Jawbreaker]

One of my friends from freshman year had it, and hers was pretty bad. She would get frequent respiratory infections and she would be in and out of the hospital. She didn't like talking about her CF, so she would make up fake excuses about why she had been missing for a few days. We knew what these excuses meant, but this way if we were hanging out with more casuall acquaintances, they wouldn't know that she had been in the hospital and start asking her a bunch of questions. Since her CF was pretty bad, it's like someone with really bad asthma. We would take the elevator, because she couldn't take the stairs. If we were going anywhere, we'd drop her off at the door before parking the car (since she would get winded walking across the parking lot). She couldn't be around cigarette smoke, and she had to be very careful to avoid infection (frequent handwashing, having a single room in the dorm, using the handicapped bathroom so she wasn't sharing a bathroom with everyone else). As for what she had to do to stay healthy, she had to have a nurse help her clear her lungs every morning by thumping her on her back. She would have the nurse go to her dorm to do this early in the morning so it didn't interfere with her classes or with hanging out with her friends.

I think my friend's case was pretty extreme. She had a friend that also had CF, but not as badly. Her friend would be able to do light physical activity like going out for a not-too-strenuous jog, climbing a few flights of stairs, etc. Since you said your camp girl seems fairly healthy, she probably isn't as limited by her CF as my friend. I think you should just let her know about the school and the sororities' anti-hazing policies and that there is not going to be any kind of forced physical activity and let her know that most sororities are going to be understanding and accomadating if she has to be absent/late/leave early for occasional doctor's visits during the new member period. And like dakareng said, let her know that if she needs dropped off outside of somewhere rather than walking all the way over, arrangements can be made for that.

[adpiucf]

Originally Posted by JocelynC

Ok, so yet another one of my church camp girls is signed up for rush (at my school).

She happens to have CF. She asked me if her CF would keep her from participating. Knowing her from church camp, she seems to be fairly healthy.

We've never done any all day actvites, so I'm not really sure what someone with CF has to do everyday to stay healthy, and what activites she may/may not be able to do

Does anyone here have any more advice I can give her? Maybe someone here has CF or has experience with a sorority sister who has it.

She should consult with her doctor and the Office of Greek Life. She may need special accomodation to keep her out of the summer heat from party to party. In my experience, special-needs PNMs are treated courteously and respectfully. I remember a wheelchair bound PNM coming through one year, and everyone made an effort to give her the same courtesies and attention as the other PNMs and to accomodate her disability in the houses.

I don't see where having CF would keep her from participating in recruitment. Once at recruitment, she will be rushed like any other PNM. As a sorority member, her sisters will accord her the same respect as any other member and work to accomodate any special needs that might apply to her condition.

One of my chapter sisters suffered from a neurological disorder that occassionally kept her on crutches or in a wheel chair. She had a very competitive recruitment, joined ADPi, and as a sorority member contributed as much time and attention the organization as any other member. During recruitment, she was not able to be out on the floor to recruit due to the long hours of standing, etc., so there were other projects that she worked on to help contribute during recruitment.

As long as this PNM has her meds and works something out with the Recruitment Exec on Pan by calling ahead, she should be ok to be out of the heat and have as normal a recruitment as is feasible.

[KSUViolet06]

The first 2 days of parties are in the Student Center so the weather isn't a factor. In between parties, the room they are taken to has A/C. She should be fine on those days.

The only 2 days I'd be concerned about would be House Tours and Preference. House Tours are at night and last year it was below frreezing outside. Prefs begin early in the morning, when it can be very chilly as well.

Thanks for the advice

[rho4life]

Kudos to this young lady for not letting her disease prevent her from 'grabbing the bull by the horns' and enjoying life!