GREATSTRIDES May 2009

Shortly after the last post, Faith became ill with a nasty cough. We took her to the pulmonologist and she was put on antibiotics right away and advised not to attend the annual CF Foundation Greatstrides walk if it was raining. So, a cough for Faith doesn't get your ordinary treatment...it requires us to increase her Vest time to 3-4 times/day (totaling an hour+), more oral meds, extra 4 puffs of inhaler each day, a minimum of one breathing treatment to reduce inflammation/CF DNA mucus, but up to 4 (10 minutes each), and it's a TOBI month for her, which means that already in her routine for the month she's got (2) 30 minute breathing treatments...for a total of about 2hr30min of treatments EVERY day. Yuck!

I was scheduled to help set up early the morning of the walk and it seemed some meteorologists said it would rain and others said it wouldn't. I stayed positive and allowed her to come at start time, but it did begin to rain. Thankfully, Grandpa Marlin was there to swoop her and Brooke away and take them home. The rest of Team FaithFULL stayed to walk and enjoy the entertainment.

The overall turnout for the walk was drastically reduced due to the rain and also the economy. Our grand total this year was over $6200, not too shabby for a rough year! In total, Team FaithFULL has raised OVER $50,000 since Faith was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. Thank you all SO very much for your love & support!

Once her 2 weeks of antibiotics were up, we again visited the pulmonologist to decide if her lungs were clear or if she'd need to be admitted to the hospital for IV's. Though a light cough resumed, her lungs were clear and yet again, she's skipped the hospital, phew!

The girls are loving Falon, who is now 3 months old and learning to be good. We went to Sand Mountain toward the end of the month and Faith had a preschool graduation (she went this year only one day/week and will go 2 days/week next year)!