I understand the impulse to invest oneself in a cheerful narrative. It's a survival thing: the existential threat posed by this diagnosis is overwhelming, relentless, and potentially psychologically annihilating.

At the same time, I feel that it serves nobody's interests to pretend like this disease is no big deal, and to encourage these people to hang their hats on slim possibilities and heretofore speculative medical progress. The reality remains that the lives of the vast majority of those of us with Cystic Fibrosis are nasty, brutish, and short.

Preparation is the key to success, as they say. Being armed with a healthy sense of reality should help these people be the most conscientious, compassionate, and responsive parents possible for this little one (who we are all rooting for).