CF clinic visit

Today, was our 3-month Pleasanton clinic visit.  Usually I wake up feeling anxious about these visits, but today I wasn’t. Ben’s weight’s great, his appetite is fine however he still has a dry cough. But for some reason, I’m not too worried. If he cultures pseudomonas again, we’ll figure out the plan and go from there. I’m letting go of my worries and just being thankful that we are happy and healthy.

Our “little” man is still tippin’ the scales at nearly 34 pounds! Only up 1 pound from 2 months ago but since he’s still in the 92 percentile (!!!!) they are not worried in the slightest. He’s at the age where he’s going to start lengthening out and growing thinner. He did grow a whole inch and is now half an inch shy of three feet! We are so thankful that Ben continues to grow and thrive!

His lungs are clear and he was even able to cough on command for our NP to hear. This helps her listen to his lungs better and make sure there is no crackling. We even introduced him to the lab where he will eventually do his Pulmonary Function Tests (PFT’s). He had an infant one done under sedation about a year ago and I’m hoping we can start doing them regularly in the future. I want to introduce him to the equipment and how to blow now, so he’ll be a pro by the time he’s around the age to start. Our clinic hopes to have him up and going with PFT’s around age 3. Ben did great with the equipment and was even able to give a couple practice blows.

Eventually his nose will be plugged and he’ll take a deep breath and blow into the hairdryer thingy (we use technical terms around here) and the computer will measure how much air he can blow out. If there’s an infection or he’s not feeling good, the numbers will go down indicating a problem. Then we know to step in and change up his routine. I’m hoping that by the time he gets good at them, we can do them every appointment.

A throat culture was taken and we were on our way. We swung by Walmart to allow Ben to pick out a toy and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he picked out a new car, bringing our toy car count to a gazillion and one. A milkshake at the golden arches completed our day.

The culture results should be back next Tuesday. Once we know what and if he grows anything, we’ll go from there. I’ll deal with the results then.