Pulmo visit and Antibiotics

Faith's had a slight cough for a few days now. It started with a little nasal congestion and has been working it's way downward despite extra time on the Vest and a little Xopenex in the inhaler here and there.

I went ahead and made an appointment in Sacramento with the pulmonologist for her to be checked out...better on a Thursday than the weekend. The Dr. felt similar to how I had. Either her body would rid of the cough in the next 2 days or it would get worse, so it was decided to go ahead and give her 2 weeks of oral antibiotics. Faith requested a pill form this time and gave him a high five, to my surprise! So she should be done with this the day before the Greatstrides walk! Last year at this time she was also ill and had to leave the walk early with Grandpa Marlin when it started raining.

Ugh, while leaving the appointment, I found out that our favorite Dr. who's on maternity leave is not coming back! SUPER upset about that. She was a wonderful person and as a Dr. really listened and responded well with great bedside manner. We will be very sad to no longer have her. She had our trust. Our favorite nurse, Kasey, has also been out for a few months, but is due to return sometime in May....we cross our fingers for her to come back refreshed and ready to take on the tough job battling CF with amazing patients like Faith :) She is a truly wonderful rock in our CF Team and family.

Antibiotics, let's kick it!

4.15.2010
Why have the last few Easters had yucky weather? The girls woke up and found that the Easter bunny had left them eggs all inside the house, just in case in rained outside, so they wouldn't get wet. They squealed running around the house to find them all. After church we headed to Nana Fonda and Pampa Marc's house to hang out and play some games.

By the 7th Faith had a stuffy nose and a couple days later it had turned into a cough so we started the vest treatments twice a day. It's not her favorite thing to do them more than once in the day, but very important that we try in order to reduce the mucus thickening up and leading to infection. She never seemed to actually have a cold, but something was definitely going on....like some CF congestion is the best way I could describe it. On the 15th I'd decided it'd been long enough and she needed to be seen by the pulmonologist. Normally we don't wait this long. He said she was right on the fence as to whether she'd get over it on her own in a couple more days or not. In the long run, he felt it best to nail it with some antibiotics to be sure the congestion would go away. So two weeks of antibiotics starts now.

We got to go to the zoo one weekend, Steph's been doing some volunteer work on the upcoming greatstrides for CFF walk May 1 and Faith is officially registered for homeschooling for kindergarden. That should be an adventure. She's already been asking us to teach her to read and upon recommendation from her preschool teacher has read a few small starter books!

In March we also took the girls to Sand Mountain and Auntie Desiree and Uncle Kel joined us. We had a great, low key time and the weather was pretty nice for us. Faith went to the top of the mountain a couple times, too!

The following week Faith had a CF Team appointment. Everything seems stable for now. She got to try the FEV machine (Forced Expiratory Volume to check her lung capacity, essentially) again, we worked out some information for her vest and have a few things to be followed up on, but her lungs sound clear and she's at 70% for height and 67% for weight, which is phenominal! We are fully aware that this can change dramatically with a minor illness, but we will happily take these numbers when we can! Our goal is always above 50%, GO FAITH!

February 2010

The month of February started off with Brooke in for a Dr. visit with an ear infection and Stephanie got to go to Pismo Beach to visit her great friend Catheline for a girl weekend.

Faith was due this month for her annual blood work. Grandpa Marlin joined us. Faith was nervous and scared as usual. She cried, but always seems to understand it's necessary and doesn't fight. She did a great job. Results later came back with very good information and she seems to be absorbing all of her vitamins well.

Brooke tried Faith's dance class and after two times she no longer had interest. Not sure why, but I got a couple of cute photos as proof she tried! This month was 'puppy' Falon's 1st birthday, too, so we celebrated with a little doggie ice cream.

We have been growing about 70 plants from little seedlings and went ahead and planted them prior to our upcoming trip. The girls LOVE planting and checking on the garden.

Steph's parents shared the duties of keeping the kids while we went on an adult's only trip to Vegas for Morgan's 30th birthday! The first night we stayed in an amazing suite at Vdara, one of the newest hotels on the strip. Then, the rest of the friends and family joined us at a timeshare down the road. We had a great time and in all saw 2 shows (Morgan was even pulled up on stage and we laughed SO hard), walked a bunch, danced a bunch, gambled some, then finished the weekend with Nascar......the rest is as they say, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!"

When we got home from Vegas, all of our little plants had croaked. There was a huge storm backat home and none of them really made it :( so we'll have to try again...

Happy FIFTH Birthday, Faith!

March 4 was Faith's 5th birthday. Five is a big deal for Faith and our family. If Faith was born 50 years ago, we would've been told she wouldn't live to see age 5. I cannot imagine that and try to only seldom even allow myself to be swallowed by the thoughts & devastation that cystic fibrosis is.

Faith had a Garden Party. I gave her a list of ideas weeks ago and her eyes lit up at the garden idea. She had about 10 girls over to decorate little pots, color butterflies then pin them on the flower while blindfolded, played a game outside and planted seeds into their pots of dirt to take home. The party was complete with ladybug strawberries, flower sandwiches and a 65 roses garden with info to sign up for the CFF Greatstrides walk. Everyone had a great time! After the party Faith said, "Happy Birthday to myself!" I asked her what her favorite part of the day was and this was her reply:

"Everything! I have 4 favorites: 1. The dirt cups (to eat), 2. Qwynci's messy face (from the purple cupcake frosting), 3. The rainbow facepaint (thanks Tiffany for helping!), 4. All my friends helping me open my presents.....and I have one more, playing with all my presents after the party (naturally!)." I'm not sure about posting pictures of all the kids without parent consent, so here's what it looked like before the chaos, haha!

Also after the party, Brookie was caught trying to give Falon lip gloss!

Brookie's 4rd Bday

We celebrated Brookie turning 3 by giving her an official party, finally. It was a great bash at the backroom of Strikes Bowling.

Faith is loving dance class and Brooke is thinking about joining in soon. Faith's appointment went well this month...she gained about a pound since last month! She's doing so well that her pulmonologist gave us the option to skip her CF Team appointment since we'd pretty much done everything on their task list over the past few appointments. She also discussed with us the option of quitting TOBI semi-permanently for now since she's had clear cultures for about 18 months. She's only ever cultured a 1+ Pseudomonas twice in her life, approximately 2 years apart, so it seems to be a rare occurence. What we hope is that she doesn't culture it again for many months or even years. If she does so within the next few months, it is possible that she has it so deep in her lungs that it takes a few months of a break from TOBI inhaled antibiotics to grow up to a point at which the throat culture would catch it. So, it's a wait and see game, but for now....NO TOBI, which elates us :)

Mid January we had this conversation:

Faith: "Mommy, if you have an eye in the back of your head, how does it see?"

Steph: " It's super special"

Faith: "Does it still work when you turn your head like this?"

Steph: "Yup, it's magic."

Faith: "Will I ever grow and eye in the back of my head?"

Steph: "Yes, you get it when you have kids and become a mommy"

Faith: "Oh! And how can it see through your hair?"

Such inquisitive thoughts she has for a little one!

In November, Faith suddenly began crying because her ear hurt. She's never had an ear infection and really, rarely has a fever when she's sick. Over the next week or so she was on and off with a congested nose which led itself to a wet cough by Thanksgiving Day (which we spent at my dad's house) and Brooke had her own cough going as well. Once again, she had no appetite and was lethargic. After a visit with the pulmonologist and a throat culture, Faith ended up on antibiotics which slowly cleared her cough up and luckily, the culture came out clear. Morgan and I were able to have a weekend getaway to Half Moon Bay for my birthday at the end of the month :)

December brought my dad and stepmom's 20th Anniversary....the four of us kids and spouses took them out for a night on the town in San Francisco, complete with a limo, dinner, video montage and a Cirque de Soleil show. We all had a wonderful time celebrating them! As everyone knows, the month is also filled with a miriad of Christmas parties and dinners as well and we were able to enjoy them all. Neither of the kids got sick, but Faith's appointment with the pulmonologist did reveal that her weight gain remains at a standstill and she was to come back in one month.

Faith's requests from Santa once again had us on our toes for the big red guy. She was asking for a remote control ladybug, a flying Barbie (which we convinced her that perhaps a Tinkerbell would be more suitable to fly) and a pink quad. It's a good thing she got her letter in on time because Santa came through and the girls both had a great Christmas. We were supposed to start TOBI, her extra hour of breathing treatment right around Christmas Eve, but we pushed it off until the New Year. Brooke's request was candy and sure enough, that was her favorite item Christmas morning! The four of us went up to Tahoe to play in the snow for a couple of days and Brooke turned 3 on the 30th. We rang in the new year with Morgan's brother's family nice and causally, playing Rockband!