In the guise of a significant other to a USACFA Director, I accompanied Cynthia Dunafon to this year’s CFRI educational conference in Redwood City, CA, south of San Francisco, hosted at the Sofitel San Francisco Bay. Attendance was estimated at around 200; most attendees were West Coasters, though some came from the Midwest and East Coast, and one couple traveled all the way from the Netherlands expressly to participate in the event. Plenary sessions were held Friday night & the mornings and afternoons Saturday and Sunday, with breakout suppport group sessions Saturday afternoon and informal “CF Roundtable discussions,” led by USACFA Directors and spouses, Sunday noon. The usual list of suspects sponsored the event, with some curious new faces: Genentech, Novartis, Axcan Pharma, Swank Audio Visuals, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Cystic Fibrosis Pharmacy (Florida–Grandma Bev), Digestive Care, Inc., Dymedso, Inc., ElectroMed, Inc., Ambry Genetics, Hill-Rom Company, Nelson Biotechnologoes, and Two Minds at Work, LLC. Stingent cross-infection rules prevailed. Unlike the annual Chicago Great Strides and Chicago CF Awareness Day events, CFers had green dots on their badges, a practical–and ideological–measure with a host of positive benefits. The hotel wait-staff was instructed to serve the CFers so that they were never obliged to touch serving implements or common vessels, thus limiting cross-infection. As a conference devoted to exploring constructive ways of living with chronic illness, identifying the CFers enriched the experience of all of the conference goers by contextualizing the ‘identity politics” of the gathering, while giving the CFers themselves precious opportunities for mentoring and solidarity. Cynthia & I will describe some of the research updates and conference happenings in the following weeks.
August 12, 2006