About the time Dawn was thirteen months old, her sister Cathy developed Measles. One week later Dawn got the Measles. Cathy had been slightly sick with the Measles but Dawn got severely sick with the Measles. I took her to see both her regular doctor and her allergy doctor. By the following day she had stopped eating and drinking. I was told to give her a teaspoon of water every fifteen minutes around the clock hoping to prevent her from dehydration. The next morning we took her to the emergency room as she had not improved. I knew we had serious problems with Dawn when about seven doctors surrounded her bed. We were informed she was severely sick and needed to be admitted immediately: however, because she had Measles they could not take her. We had to transport her to another hospital where they had a communicable disease ward. We had a police escort to the next hospital. By the time we arrived at the hospital, Dawn was having difficulty breathing. The doctors grabbed her. As we watched, they immediately put a tube down her throat. Shortly afterward they did a spinal tap on her. We were told Dawn was in a coma and the Measles had caused her to develop Encephalitis. They gave us no hope of her living through the night. She was placed in the communicable disease ward on IV and oxygen. We were told we could look at her through the glass window and then we had to leave as it was almost midnight. The hardest thing we had to do was walk away from that hospital. The next morning we were back at the hospital and Dawn was awake and crying. She was the most beautiful sight we had ever seen. It took her a few months to get over this episode. She continued going to the allergy doctor weekly and was seeing a pediatrician. I told him several times about her loose bowels but he didn’t feel it was anything important.

When Dawn was three and a half years old she developed Scarlet Fever and Rheumatic Heart Fever and a heart murmur. A few day later she was admitted into the hospital with pneumonia and a collapsed lung. Dawn was in the hospital for twenty days. While in the hospital I spoke with an elderly doctor and he suggested when Dawn was released from this hospital we take her to Children’s Hospital to see a specialist. This specialist ran numerous tests on her and the one came back positive. We were told Dawn had Cystic Fibrosis and it was not allergies and asthma that was causing her breathing problems. We asked what is Cystic Fibrosis? We were told it was an incurable inherited lung disease. Most likely Dawn would never live to be five years old. Dawn was immediately put on medicine to help her breathing and enzymes medicine to help her bowels. She was now to sleep in a mist tent every night. This mist tent consisted of a machine and a plastic tent that covered her bed. Every night, I had to add water, mixed with glycol, to this machine. The machine created a fine mist inside the tent. Dawn, who was not even four years old, was a real trooper with this mist tent and took it in stride. The mist was warm inside the tent and so thick you couldn’t see her. When she got up in the morning, I had to wash her hair as it was soaked from the mist, as well as her clothing and bedding. After finding out about Dawn having C/F, things sort of settled into a routine. She would take her enzymes medicine with each meal and snacks, daily. We learned how to clap her chest and back to help release the thick mucus in her lungs. She would be put on antibiotics at the first sign of an infection. If that didn’t help, she would be admitted to the hospital for a course of antibiotic IV therapy. She would see a least one doctor a week, sometimes it would be more. She continued going to Children’s Hospital at least once a month for a check up.

When Dawn was about twelve things changed again for her. She started having problems with her bowels becoming blocked, due to the thick mucus in her body. We tried several things and when nothing worked , she was admitted into the hospital. She had surgery on her bowels to release the bowel blockage. I always believed it was at this time she began to realize how serious her condition was. She was never quite the same after this surgery. Dawn developed nasal polyps and had to have surgery on her nose to remove them. About a year later while taking a bath, she started screaming. I ran into the bathroom and there was blood covering the shower walls. This was the start of the bleeding from her lungs. She was admitted into the hospital for a course of antibiotic IV therapy. Dawn would miss a lot of days from school because of her condition. She had friends at school and was hard on her not to see them. Years later, I would learn that a teacher in grade school told her she coughed too much and would send her to stand outside the classroom. Dawn said she was so embarrassed, and ashamed because she couldn’t stop the coughing in school. Other teachers were very nice to her and told her if she needed to go to the bathroom for privacy, just leave. Around this time Dawn decided to become a vegetarian. I believe she had seen so much suffering, she didn’t want to be the cause of suffering for animals. Dawn was now being admitted into the hospital more frequently for antibiotic IV therapy, as the pill form of antibiotics were not working. Dawn had been in the hospital so many times for IV treatments that her veins collapsed. The doctor's only recourse was to surgically insert a shunt (mediport) in her chest. She would be given her IV through this shunt. The shunt develop problems and had to be replaced several times. In high school Dawn had to do a class project. It took a lot of courage on her part, but she decided to talk about C/F. Part of her display would include her hospital ID admittance wrist bands. She had close to fifty of them. Her friends knew that she had C/F, as she never tried to keep it a secret. Other kids didn’t know why she missed so much time and was always coughing.

When Dawn graduated from school she tried working for awhile but it was too much on her. In addition, she was missing too much time from work seeing doctors and being admitted into hospitals. Dawn applied for SSI and received it about two years later. She met a significant other and she appeared to be very happy for awhile. He had two small children that she adored. Dawn was told it would be too risky for her to ever have a child. Dawn was now being admitted into the hospital more frequently. She was placed on steroids numerous times, usually for a two week course. It was not helping . She was placed on a stronger dose of steroids and left on them for several months. She then developed diabetes. In addition, to managing her C/F condition, she now had to check her sugar level several times a day and give herself injections.

Dawn was now having more bleeding from her lungs. There was talk about taking part of her lung out or maybe a lung transplant. Dawn didn’t want a lung transplant. She was being admitted to the hospital about every five weeks for a ten day treatment of antibiotic IV to fight infections. Dawn was losing weight and now was having seizures. Dawn was admitted to the hospital for another round of IV treatments to control the bleeding in her lungs. We wanted to believe this would be just like her other stays, but it was far from a normal stay for Dawn. They did surgery on her lungs, trying to cauterize her lungs, in the hope of stopping some of the bleeding. The surgeon said he did what he could but her lungs were like Swiss cheese and there were just too many holes for him to cauterize them all. The surgery appeared to aggravate her bleeding as Dawn was bleeding even more then prior to the surgery. She was placed on a morphine drip. We were told there was nothing more to be done for her. The next day Dawn died, May 23, 1997. She fought a very long and very courageous battle against an invisible killer called Cystic Fibrosis. It has been ten years Dawn since her death. Dawn will never believe how many people miss her terribly each and every day since her horrible death. I make a memorial book for you and websites. I love you and miss you.