Update on Samuel - Not much to update

It was a little over a week ago that my Mac, well, I'm not sure what happened, but it stopped working. Long story short, the hard drive stopping "spinning" as the Genious said. So the bad news: everything on my Mac from the last year was lost. Pictures, work, images, iTunes (I'm not convinced all iTunes purchases are lost I just haven't figured it out yet) all lost. The good news: the Mac wasn't even a year old and all parts were covered under warranty so I got a new hard drive installed at no cost. Thank you Jesus! :)

Update on Samuel- Swim Fwim lessons are over. Thankfully. He did quite well in my opinion, but by comparison, um, he passed. He went underwater, attempted to hold his breath for a split second, and, um, that's about it. Floating went uh, ok, it didn't go well at all. But it's over. We didn't drop out (which would have been OK, but not what I wanted) didn't skip a class or were even late. We stuck it out. It's finished for now. We will try again for Michael Phelps-like swimming abilities later.

And speaking of sticking with it... I'm SO glad we stuck with the Storytime Arts and Crafts class. He loves his class! Even last week he was so sleepy and was snuggled up with me before class. I was a bit unsure of how it would go but when his teacher invited the kids into class, he was very excited. On his way through the door, he said the obligatory "Bye Mommy!" without looking back. I'm happy he's gaining independence but sad at the same time.

He's saying lots of other funny things. Like when he holds up his index finger and says "I GOT it!" like he's just had the best idea. Or my favorite is when he folds his hands in his lap and says "Soooo...." I started responding with "What do you want to talk about?" and now he says both and usually answers his own question too. His usual response is "Let's talk about daddy!" He was really surprised when I told him a secret about his daddy. I said "Daddy is my best friend." He looked at me a bit surprised, and said "Daddy your best friend you?" Well, yes, he is, if that's how you want to say it.

Operation silent auction donation solicitation is in full effect. As of now, we have one donation. Since I've got the computer back I can focus on that a little bit more. And I'd better if we want to have anything worth bidding on! Maybe that will be my focus this week. It's so hot (humid as well) that I don't even want to leave the house. OR maybe I can just mentally summon the donations to come to me.

Another first...one of the last

Yesterday Samuel had another "first". Just off hand, I think it might be his last first. I've been thinking about how I need to get him to the dentist for a long time...like...a year. I read somewhere, probably a parenting magazine, that their first dentist appointment should be when they have about 8 teeth. Samuel didn't cut his first tooth until after his first birthday. Actually, it was after he started walking. But it wasn't long and they all came in rather quickly. So he's had his 8 teeth for over a year. And that's about how long I've been putting off the dentist. Mind you, I'm not like most people and I don't really mind going to the dentist. It's not my favorite thing in the world, but as I've only had 1 cavity and never needed major dental work (except for braces), I don't mind my routine visits.

I was hoping it would be a better experience for Samuel. All in all, it wasn't bad. Our "check-in" time was 8:40 am. It took me about 5 minutes to do the paperwork and at 9:15, we were still in the waiting room. Not a big deal since their were more than enough trains and toys to entertain. Honestly, I think we could have stayed there all day as far as Samuel was concerned. But, around 9:20, things started to go downhill.

First, we met the hygienist, Natalie. She was great! Honestly, I think she was hand-picked for Samuel. Her mom had CF. She was familiar with the clinic doctors at PCH. They moved from Kokomo, IN to Arizona to escape the humidity for her mom's health. During all this small talk, we tried to get 2 x-rays of Samuel's teeth. Funny! We got 2 crooked pictures that actually weren't that bad, considering he was squirming the whole time but not how you'd normally see teeth.

Then, we went into the room were we discussed Samuel's meds, the effect it could have on his mouth health and pacifier usage. And don't forget the conversation about taking juice to bed. Natalie told me our action plan, meaning how I was going to hold Samuel down while she brushed, flossed and fluorided. Then the dentist would come in and we'd do it again.... Repeat conversations and wrestle the screaming boy.

At the end, good news all around! No cavities! I hope he inherited my enamel-of-steel. He's got one more tooth coming in (explain his constant runny nose?) and our brushing method is approved. Our method: 2 toothbrushes, 1 for him, 1 for me. He has his turn brushing, then mommy takes a turn brushing. It works for us. Even though he was NOT a fan of Natalie and the dentist, all was forgiven when we came out of the exam room and he got his token to get a price. He chose the bouncy ball. And he even got a blue balloon that lasted more than 5 minutes! It ended up on the ceiling of our next errand stop but it was OK.

All around, it was a busy day with the dentist, his story-time arts and crafts class, which he now loves, and fwim lessons. Since Samuel has become LOTS more comfortable in the water, we started him in swim (or, as he says, fwim) lessons. By the word "lesson" I mean, play. There is just 2 other boy in his group lesson, which lasts for 25 minutes. The other little boy is the same age and a natural fish. Samuel just wants to play with the toys while I hold him. A bit annoying but what am I going to do, leave him alone in the water? Since it's Monday-Thursday for 2 weeks, I'm hoping it will at least help him get some idea of what to do in the water. I can see, though, that our work is not even close to being over.

I suppose that's all for now. More news to come, I'm sure. More news like, how I'm doing on this C25K thing and eventual 1/2 marathon training. It's fun but not in the heat! And I've been having a hard time getting out of bed that past few days.

Oh, and no pics today. Sorry.

CF + Cold = Sick?

WARNING! I talk about puke. In fact, replace "sick" in the title with "puke" and that's what I mean. If you don't want to read about vomit, turn back NOW!

My son is going to be 3 in a few months. While he's learning to verbally communicate, he's still only 2, so getting him to tell me things like "I'm going to throw up" is not happening right now. That being said, can I get a little help from my older CF pals?

Here's the story. Samuel has been sick for a few days. Mostly a cold. I would guess he has a sore throat because his voice is very raspy. It started with a cough (surprise!) and went on to a runny nose and eye thing. The symptoms are better, except when he starts on his hypertonic saline (which I can only guess it's HTS...we are in a double-blind study). When he is well, he can do 15 minutes of HTS in his sleep. No, for real. When he's not well, not so much. Hoping to get 10 minutes in last night while he was asleep was a pipe dream. He started coughing immediately, which is fine. I like coughing. It clears things out, right? But, after about 5 minutes of HTS, he started gasping for air. He woke up freaked out, as we all were trying to figure out what to do. Then it started. The vomit. Luckily we had a bucket close by but still made a bit of a mess. This, by the way, is the second night in a row this has happened, except the gasping part.

In the midst, dear husband asks "So is this what we have to look forward to?" Based on my limited knowledge* I answer "Yes, I think so". But I thought I'd ask my pals with CF who CAN communicate to give me some insight.

Is this normal?

Do you get sick to your stomach when you are ill?

Is this just happening because his secretion management is nil? 

HA! Those questions rhyme and I wasn't even trying! :)

Thanks for your help. I'm hoping to NOT clean vomit out of a vest tonight.


*I should say, I have somewhat limited knowledge because I choose to focus on what we are dealing with today. If I thought about how bad things are going to get all the time, I'd never get out of bed. For me, it's just easier to sorta think about CF and it's complications on a need to know basis.