You know ladies and gents…I’ve thought about it…but I just cannot be silent for a full day most of the time. If I HAD to be silent on a day I know it jsut wouldn’t happen *giggle* So I doubt I will ever be participating in Wordless Wednesday.
But I DID get a fun picture for this weeks upcoming Picture Hunt. So I may start doing that in time for the new year. I keep meaning to better my picture taking (I’m hoping for a fancy schmancy digital next year, our current one sucks monkey butt)…so that gives me an excuse and a challenge 😀
CF Clinic was today. K was a total witch again. Throwing herself down on the floor (which, by the way, is 3 feet of concrete with a pretty layer of tile on it…how can that NOT hurt??)…throwing a huge fit pretty much 98% of the time we were there. Dr. was a doll…I just adore her…she called me insane for backing 5 different types of cookies (I didn’t tell her I was planning on making a second round of 4 of those types).
Umm…oh yes. Car worked like a dream. Like there was absolutely nothing wrong with it ever. We’re thinking the fuel got frozen in the line or something…I hadn’t run it in about 36 hours….and it gets COLD at night here!!
* A sputum culture is a test used to determine what bacteria or fungi are infecting a persons lungs and/or breathing passages.
The test is run using a swab at the back of the throat to collect the Sputum**. The culture is then tested for growth. If not growth is present, the culture is considered negative. If there is growth, the test is positive and is then checked under a microscope to determine the type of bacteria.
~~~
**Extra definition: Sputum. The thick fluid fluid produced by the lungs and the airway leading to the lungs.
Whenever my blog starts working again, here’s my update!!
Bad news – definite crackling in one of the lungs. Wheezing on both sides.
Good news – Not severe enough for admittance yet. Because of good history over the summer of good throat cultures and lung function, he’s going to trust the antibiotic for now.
How we proceed – Continue on as we have been. If there is ANY change in how well she breathes, she’s going to be admitted. Translation: If she wheezes harder, or has labored breathing (seeing ribs when she breathes) we’re to call immediately and get her in. For now we trust the meds…and cross our fingers!!
Right now while K is sick, this is my life. 3 times a day, 30 minutes a piece – plus 5-10 minutes on the nebulizer (I do not have that on video because I have to pin her down on my lap to do it properly) twice a day.
If you listen closely, you can hear her letting her voice vibrate with it (I know it’s tough over the sound of the machine).
And for an update on her being sick. The pulmonologist put her on antibiotics as a ‘precautionary’ measure. We started them this morning, but we started them too late – she spiked a fever tonight. She’s miserable…red nosed, red-eyes that are tearing, sneezing, coughing, and vomiting…it’s breaking my heart. Her first real illness since the diagnosis, and every cough just makes me tear up.
Well, once again, I have to avoid my baby girl as much as possible. I have a TERRIBLE cold. Actually, Molly had it first. When she got up yesterday K had a TINY bit of one…and by last night I had a full blown painful cold. My throat is on fire, my head feels like it’s in jell-o…
K was supposed to have an appointment with the pulmonologist today…but me going into a CF clinic with a full blown cold, and Molly just getting over hers…NOT a good idea. When I said it to the nurse, she agreed but then instantly got on the “Kennedy isn’t sick, is she?” I said that she had a tiny bit of a cold…but not severe enough to cause panic yet. Her nose ran a little yesterday, but that was about it.
I gave Molly a bath yesterday because she has the tendency to “run and wipe” (i.e. Nose runs, she wipes it…into her hair). She was all clean and shiny and soft-haired…and by the time her nap was over…so was that idea. *sigh* I hope she gets over her cold soon so that she no longer is a booger-head.
If she hadn’t developed a cough last year…we’d still be in the dark. Her lung functions are great (currently), she has some nasty BM’s…but not on an overly consistent basis (Not every BM is nasty)…She has FTT…but that could be passed off as either genetics or her hypotonia/inability to chew.
And even funnier? Last years cough never became ‘pneumonia’…it seemed more like some minor baby asthma to the pulm. A little bit of wheezing…but no rattling in her lungs…nothing like that.
A bronchoscope and seven sweat tests later…I’m now terrified for the cold and flu season to arrive. DH and I sit on eggshells worrying over our first real experience of her being SICK with CF.
Looking back, she got “sick” a few times last year…but it was always minor fever with a rash. Dr’s always dismissed it. Now each little favor has such a bigger impact…and it shouldn’t have to be that way…but it is.
