Oh, Poo! Sept/Oct 2009


Faith has had an incredible lack of interest in food lately. She enjoys helping cook and often says something, "smells so gooood, " but once it's in front of her, she avoids it completely. We saw her pulmonologist this month and the concern for me was that the scale showed she hadn't gained weight at all in almost 6 months! Her arms are starting to thin out and she's grown a little in height. The Dr. did a throat culture and Faith was a little nervous at first, but a total pro while I counted to 3 during the throat tickles. Her lungs sounded clear, which is always a good thing to hear ;)

So, our never-ending quest to put weight on little Faith continues...
October 1st she had a 3 hour appt with the CF Team. I voiced my biggest concern, which is her lack of hunger. We talked about what she's been eating, her height and weight were more meticulously measured...turns out that she actually had gained over a pound in the last three months, phew! The BMI is above 50%, which is always MY goal for her. The throat culture results came back clear, just the normal flora of bacteria. We will continue all of her regular treatments.

The nurse felt her slightly distended belly and felt like we should get an x-ray of Faith's abdomen to see if something is going on in the intestines, which could cause her to not want to eat. So the next day after her dance class we headed for the xray. My mom met us to keep an eye on Brooke (thanks so much, mom!). I explained to Faith that nothing would hurt, but a lady would be taking a picture of her belly with a really big camera and mommy would get to stay with her the whole time so there was nothing to be scared about. I prefer to always tell her what is going to happen: shots, culture, treatments, etc so that she trusts me and knows what's going on. In this case I knew because she had a chest xray a couple years ago.

She started to get a little nervous when putting her gown on, but I reiterated the truth. When it was her turn, she got up on the table and did a fantastic job staying very still with a smile on her face for 2 pictures. 4 days later the Dr. called with the results. She doesn't have a complete blockage, but there is a large 'build up' of stool in her right colon, still allowing regular amounts to pass by. She said older kids often complain of stomache ache, but very young children often just stop eating. A complete blockage would mean a hospital stay, but since this is not, we first begin treating her with a type of laxative that will help break down what's in there to get it out. This may or may not become an addition to her regular medications. For now, it's a matter of figuring out the balance Faith needs. She understand well what is happening and even retold the info to my mom mthe next day quite precisely! We are truly greatful that our CF Team caught this before it became a bigger problem and that the treatment is fairly 'simple.'

So far this Fall, Faith is really loving school and dance class. We just decorated for Halloween and plan to have a party this year. Faith decided she wants to be a unicorn....not sure how that will turn out! Brooke will be rainbow brite. We'll be heading to the Pumpkin Patch tomorrow and plan to get these last few beautiful weeks out and about before the winter hibernation for us arrives. We were warned it's going to be a harsh winter for getting sick and we've already all gotten our flu shots!