Checkups and Norovirus

Sax had clinic on 2/18.  His chest xrays came back clear, his vitamin levels were good, and his weight was steady.  It was a full and busy day, with clinic appointments from 7 am until 4:15 pm.  We did our best to stay busy in between.  We got a beautiful view of the sun coming up. Saxon got to stay in his jammies for about half the morning just because we had to be at the clinic so early.  Some pictures from our day:

Sunrise over Rochester

Tired little boy

playing his leapster (Thanks Nana and Papa!)

Later in the day, my boys snacking, waiting for the next appointment

Daddy loves his Coke!

Got bored, so played with the wrap from his blood draw



Got a little snow while we were waiting

The only negative from his appointment was his culture results.  He cultured h. influenzae again, which is normal, but the amount that he cultured was high.  Dr P prescribed a 2 week treatment with Bactrim for him, which we started the following Saturday, Feb. 23.

On  Feb 26 Sax started having some tummy issues and was throwing up in the morning.  We had thought maybe it was from the Bactrim, except he'd been on it long enough that it didn't make sense.  He laid about most of the day and really didn't eat much or drink much.  Around 4:30 pm, we had some popcorn, which I thought would be good (like crackers) for his tummy.  That didn't stay down either.  This pattern continued all the way through Saturday, so he really didn't eat much of anything and wasn't drinking much.  I was worried about dehydration, so I called the clinic.  They had the same concerns I did and suggested getting him on Pedialyte to try to prevent dehydration.  It took him until today to finally finish off one bottle of it.  He has had a couple PediaSures since Saturday too, but he still isn't going to the bathroom much.  They are pretty sure his vomiting was caused by norovirus.

Last night when Sax started getting tired and whiny, I suggested he lay in my bed for a little bit.  He had been really clingy and had a few meltdowns.  He just didn't seem to be feeling very well and just wanted his mommy.  He had been coughing a little in evening too, which got worse as he was laying down, and he was breathing kind of heavy.  After an hour or so of tossing and turning, he decided he wanted to lay in his bed and wanted me to lay with him.  Less than an hour later, and more tossing, turning, and coughing, we decided to come down to the living room.  Sax said his throat, tummy, and back all hurt.  In the end, he slept on me in the recliner.  He was still up about every hour, so I decided we needed to call in to the clinic again.

When I heard back from Vicki, she thought this had been going on long enough, so we went in to see our local CF doc, Dr U.  Apparently mono and strep are going around in addition to the flu.  All of his labs came back normal, but there is a chance that the 24 hour strep culture comes back positive.  For now, we're going to go back on the Bactrim and really push the Pedialyte.  Unfortunately his weight dropped from 16.4 kg at his checkup on 2/18 down to 15.4 kg today.  He's so skinny as it is, we need to really push to get his weight back up.  He doesn't have any extra fat or weight he can afford to lose.

I was really happy that Sax's appetite seemed to perk up a bit at supper tonight.  He ate a whole DQ hamburger (minus the bun), a big scoop of mandarin oranges, and half of a mini M&M Blizzard for supper, and about an hour later he asked for a piece of jelly toast and ate a little over 1/2 of that.  We're going to be hitting the PediaSure and DuoCal hard this next week, and adding in some ScandiShakes.  I have to call or email the clinic tomorrow to let them know how he's doing, and I'm going to see about getting him back on weekly weigh-ins at our local clinic.  That way we can keep better track of his weight and catch any drops right when they happen.  Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon!! (and hopefully I'll have time/remember to update again soon!)

Just Another Crazy Month!!

So April 22 was my 30th birthday - and 30 has taken me on one helluva ride so far!!!

Raine and Sax had a new sitter that night, our friends' daughter Ellery, and they absolutely LOVED having her sit for them!!  Yay!!  We stopped in to check on the kids and see how they were getting along, bringing them a big piece of dessert to share (loaded with sugar of course!!)

That weekend was pretty mellow even though Easter was on Sunday.  The Easter Bunny hid baskets in the house for the kids and eggs and toys in the yard.  This year was kites, bubbles, more bubbles (always a huge win for my kids!!), and frisbees.  We knew the Bunny had left 42 eggs, so we were sure to tell Raine that she and her brother each got 21 eggs.  Sax got a 2 minute head start to try to find them... not that it helped at all.  He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but after finding the first egg, he got the idea and he was off!!  The kids put all of their change together into their change jar.  They are saving up for the fair, of course!! Any money they save up is theirs to share and spend come fair time!

Monday Sax had a WIC appointment and recert.  This was a FABULOUS checkup, as his weight has climbed to 14.7 kg, which put him into the 60th percentile - WOOHOO!!  GO SAX!!  This time, along with the PediaSure we usually get, we also got 6 cans of DuoCal - 2 per month.  It seems to be working though!

Wednesday was another HUGE day for us!  We found out Saxon is going to be a big brother!!  I am due to have baby #3 on Dec 25, 2011, so it will be one heck of a Christmas!!  We are not going to find out what we're having, and we're not going to find out if the baby has CF.  There are way too many risks involved with having an amnio, and we'd rather not risk it.

The rest of the week was pretty mellow - until Sunday.  Sax and Raine were playing in the living room with their golf clubs.  Saxon had taken the end off of one of them and put it in his mouth - just long enough to bump into something - OUCH!!  His mouth was bleeding like crazy, so we rushed off to the ER.  What we found out was he gouged under his tongue and put a hole in his soft palate in the back of his throat.  There's really nothing the doc could do for him, so they just sent us home and said it would heal on its own.

We thought that would be the end of it.  Nope.  I ended up taking Sax into Urgent Care on Tuesday.  When he woke up his right eye was matted shut, and it was pretty red most of the day.  I noticed it had been a little goopy on Monday.  Yup, in spite of the fact he's not around a lot of kids during the day, he had gotten pink eye.  The only thing I can think of is that maybe he got it when we were at the grocery store or if Raine brought it home from school with her.

What a fun 2 weeks!! Always waiting to see what happens next!!

Oh my, a little behind!!

Well, I guess part of the reason I haven't had much to write lately is that not much has really happened lately.  Ok, that's not entirely true.  We've had a little bit going on, and pretty busy schedules.

So to bring things up to date:

Sax went through ECSE screening to make sure he didn't need any additional help besides the obvious complications from his CF.  He did AMAZING on these tests!!  He was in the 6-year-old range for his vocabulary and recognition of objects and pictures!!  Yay!!  We knew he was a smart little whipper!!

Sax hasn't been sick in the last 2 months, so nothing to report from that front :-) 

He's been doing pretty good on the potty training too!!  He goes a couple times a day and is usually pretty good about telling us when he has to potty.  Going #2 hasn't been quite as successful, but he's trying! When I ask him if he's done, he loves telling me "Almost Mommy!! Almost!!"  He's such a little cutie!

Since Sax was doing so well on the Duocal, it's been decided we're going to keep him on it, 3x per day.  We're also trying the Pediasure 1.5, which finally arrived today.  Been waiting for that one for a while!!  Not sure if it tastes any different - it's in the fridge cooling down, so we'll see how well he likes it when it's cold.

It's Spring Break form school, so Raine is home today and Monday too, and was home yesterday.  The kids have been playing together pretty good today, not so much yesterday, but hey, they ARE siblings.  Just glad they're trying to make my birthday a good one!! :-)

Daddy also reminded me that I need to give him the password so he can update the blog once in a while.  Share his thoughts a bit.  So there may be some more input from him on here in the near future :-)  Well, now to spend more of my day with my kids.... hopefully I'll update again soon but with all good news again! :-)

Just a Typical Mayo Day... Or Daddy Got Inked

Wednesday was our day for Spring Checkup!  Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Mayo we go... or went.  It was a busy day.  It's a really good thing that the way the pre-appointment time was NOT an indication of how the day would go!!

We got off to a late start right away.  I hurried to unload my displays from the trunk so I could put the stroller in, keeping Raine moving and getting ready, packed the diaper bag, and let Daddy finish getting Sax ready.  Since we had to be there by 9am, our plan was to leave about 7:30am.   We had to drop Raine off at my friend's house since she couldn't be at the school before 8am, then dropped off some stuff for a client of mine and decided to hit McD's on the way out so Mama could get a Frappe and Daddy and Sax could get some food.  BIG MISTAKE!!! 

We got the Frappe and the OJ and were asked to pull ahead cuz they needed to make the steak for Daddy's burrito.  We waited...... and waited..... and waited.... and waited..... the worse part of where they want you to wait is that is where the smokers go to have their cigarettes, so even with the windows closed the smell of the smoke got into the car.  Finally we looked at the receipt to see if there was a time on it - we put our order in at 7:44.  By now, it was 7:59.  I sent Daddy in while I pulled the car around to the other side. 

Scot: Where is our food?
Lady: I gave it to you.
Scot: No, you didn't.
Lady: Yes I did.
Scot: You gave me the Frappe and the orange juice and asked us to wait.  Can I get a refund for the food since we're not going to get it?

She turns around and, sure enough, our order was still sitting by the window.  I don't think they would have ever brought it out!!!  So now we're already about 10 minutes behind (accounting for the 5 minutes it normally takes to go through the drive-thru).  We don't have time to deal with talking to a manager, so that got moved to Mommy's to-do list (and it got done Thursday, too!!)

We were cruising along pretty good until we got halfway to Austin and the roads started getting slick, so we had to slow down a bit.  Then when we got almost to 63, the car started acting up.  Daddy thinks it's the torque converter clutch solenoid (tcc).  When I try to speed up, the accelerator pushes back and the car doesn't want to speed up.  If I pull over, turn the car off, and let it sit for a minute, then it usually resets and works again.  Sometimes it resets and works without having to turn it off if I drive like that long enough, which is what must've happened because it started accelerating again ok.  That is, until we got off 52 and were heading to the clinic :-(  Daddy's going to see what he can do about that. 

We parked at the Damon parking ramp, as we usually do, and walked the subway to the clinic.  It never fails - old people walking 6 wide and slow down the hallway so you can't get around them, and stopping to take pictures.  Scot was putzing behind them, so I took over the stroller, said "EXCUSE ME" and speed-walked past them and the 3 blocks through the maze of subways to Mayo.  Saxon was beeping the horn on his steering wheel on the stroller the whole way too, so that helped and people got out of our way!!  We ended up being about 10 minutes late for our first appointment, which was with the social worker.  But that ended up being alright because she wasn't on 16 and ready to go either.  It all ended up working out.

Our appointment with the Social Worker was one that we had requested in addition to the other appointments we had.  We have been having a lot of trouble with our local Human Services office when it comes to insurance.  Our income has not changed even though I started a second job.  Between the 2 jobs I still make less than I had originally claimed on the initial application.  And Scot's income hasn't changed.  However, because I started the 2nd job, the case worker has been threatening to drop Saxon off the insurance because all of a sudden we're too close and are going to go over the income guidelines.  I don't understand this.  Plus she won't tell us WHAT the income guidelines are!!  So we asked the Rochester worker for some help.  She was able to give us contact information for an advocacy program for our county.  (I haven't had a chance to call them yet - but that's a whole different issue.  It's on my list of 'things to do' this week.)  I'm just so tired of the case worker calling and threatening us, then getting letters in the mail saying they don't have our info when I personally hand-delivered it prior to the deadline.

Our next appointment was with Vicki and Dr P.  They listened to him and asked questions about behaviors and appetites and stools and coughs - all the normal stuff.  We reviewed his treatments.  I suggested maybe increasing his CPT time to 25 minutes since it seems that things start loosening up about the time that his vest turns off.  Vicki said that was fine because eventually he'd move up to 30 minutes, so this is a halfway step.  She said there is no reason to do more than 30 minutes in any one sitting because the research shows there is no improvement with more time.  He doesn't seem to notice the extra 5 minutes anyway.  When it was time for Dr P to listen to him, Sax climbed up on the table and was ready to go like a big boy!  Dr P listened to his heart and lungs, and Sax took his big, deep breaths.  We mentioned how gassy Sax still seems to be, and Dr P said it sounded like there was quite a bit of gas in his abdomen.  It was decided that when we come back for his next quarterly checkup that we will see Dr E, the gastroenterologist.  There may be some digestive issues going on.  And when Sax is on his Zantac, it seems that he's a lot more gassy.  He's been dealing with a lot of gas issues since he was born, so we're not sure what to think.....

Sax has grown almost an inch since his appointment in November.  Of course everything is metric, but he's gone from 88.0 cm to 90.7 cm tall, which moved him from 30% to 36% for his age.  Like I said before, we knew he'd be short.  We have no control over that.  There was some concern over his weight though.  Since November, he has only gained .10 kg.  Ok, so it's a gain, but it's not much.. it's not enough.  With him getting a little taller and not gaining weight to go with the height, he has dropped from 61% to 53%. His BMI ranking has dropped from 83% to 67%.  We're happy he's still above the 50% mark, but he's getting closer and closer.  It's not helping that he's been so picky and not eating much lately!! (although last night he did eat green beans and steak!!) 

We didn't do a blood test this round, but probably will next time and recheck his iron levels.  Of course there was the throat culture too.  We haven't gotten the results of that yet, but I expect I should be getting those soon.  Sax is such a good boy when Vicki sticks the swabs down his throat.  He doesn't fight or bite down on the swabs.  He's also very cooperative when it's time to check his ears and nose.  Sax was told he's one of their best patients for that!! :-)

Our next appointment (and the last one Daddy was at for the day) was with the dietician.  We discussed options for increasing his caloric intake.  For his age (with his condition) his caloric need is about 2000 calories per day - which is what a normal healthy adult needs, to put things into perspective.  He loves his vanilla Pediasure, but that's not quite doing it.  Our dietician has requested a case of Pediasure 1.5 be sent to us.  One bottle has over 300 calories in it.  If he like it, we may be able to get that from WIC.  She said we can also add the Carnation powder to it, which we had been doing with his whole milk, to increase the calories even more, or buy the strawberry or chocolate syrup.  And butter.  In spite of what the WIC nurse says, butter is very very good for him.  Cholesterol is not an issue for him because to have cholesterol problems, you have to ABSORB fat.  He doesn't do that anyway, so we're just to disregard them. 

We're also trying something called Duocal.  The dietician has requested a sample of that be sent to us too.  There are 42 calories per Tbsp, so it's very close to the caloric content of butter (except without the fat and salt).  The Duocal can be added to his food and beverages and is supposed to add calories without changing the taste or texture of the food. (More info at http://www.myduocal.com/.)

Now, during all of this is when Daddy snuck away, but for good reason.  He is doing his part to help create CF awareness..

Daddy's new CF tat - 65 Roses and Saxon.  This is his left forearm where it can be visible year round, and he's more than proud to explain to everyone exactly what it means :-) 

Daddy made it back just as Mommy and Sax were getting into the car, so he missed lunch and our ENT appointment.  Mommy and Sax went to Red Lobster and had a nice date and were served by our favorite waitress, who just happens to always be working when we're there.  Unfortunately there really aren't many kid-friendly places to eat in that area.  We usually prefer to eat lunch early and avoid the crowds.  We didn't have that option this time because Sax's appointment didn't get done until noon, but we had until before the ENT appointment.

We saw Stephanie and ended up seeing Dr Cofer before we left.  Mommy's been a little concerned because Saxon's left side of his nose has been bleeding a little bit.  I told them he's been doing well with his Nasonex, but we haven't been doing the saline since we weren't told to continue with that one.  Stephanie looked in his ears - which his left tube still looks good and is open, and his right has healed nicely - and looked in his nose and though she found something.  She called in Dr Cofer and they decided to do another nasal endoscopy.  NOT fun holding down a 2 year old while the doctors shove a tube and camera up his nose, then shove a suction tube up there.  Poor little man!!  At least it didn't bleed much this time!!  The sucked some nasty boogies out so they could see better.  It was a pretty clear path too!! Only one little polyp starting to form in the left side, and nothing in the right!!  Yippee!!  Dr Cofer gave him clearance to come back in 6 months now instead of 3.  The only change she made to his routine is the addition of saline nasal spray once or twice a day to help clear out the nasal mucus.

So all in all, it ended up being a pretty good day of appointments.  We stopped on the way home and got a new pet (for Mommy).


My hamster Saxon named Mouse

So I'll leave you with some fun pictures from the past week.....