It's been quite the interesting week for us. I am doing much better: still some congestion and a cough, and I sound like Joan Rivers when I talk (in other words, my voice is gone), but my energy and appetite are back, and my sinuses feel normal again. Yay! Unfortunately, Judith picked up the virus toward the end of the week, and on Friday began coughing, along with having a runny nose. Let me tell you, that CF mucus is pretty gross since it's so thick and sticky.
Saturday rolled around, and Judith's cough was getting worse, and she was starting to cough the entire time she was on her Vest. Instead of waiting it out further, I called the after hours line at the CF clinic, and tried to get patched through to the on call doctor (side note: whenever the parents of a patient or the patient themselves calls the nurse line, the nurses are supposed to triage the patient and immediately patch them through to the on call doctor). I explained to the nurse that Judith's doctor said to call whenever she started showing signs of symptoms, and they would work to get an antibiotic prescription ready for her. I asked if she could transfer me to talk to the on call doctor, but I was never patched through, being told that it was "probably just allergies" since Judith only had a low grade fever (99.7). As the nurse was going on about this and telling me things to do that I already knew to do, I was sitting there thinking, "Why on earth won't you just transfer my call like I asked so I can speak to the on call pulmonologist and see if they want me to take her to an urgent care or if they'll just call in the prescription?!" So my time was basically wasted, and I had a feeling we might be in trouble in another day or 2 because the antibiotics were being delayed.
Sunday, thankfully, was about as uneventful as you can expect with a toddler who has a sinus infection and mucus getting stuck in her lungs. First thing Monday morning I called the nurse coordinator at the clinic, and Dr. G. sent the prescription to the pharmacy as quickly as he could. We had a couple scary moments on Monday where Judith had coughing fits trying to expel the mucus in her lungs and couldn't catch her breath. That was a first for us, and I freaked out a little bit because I had no clue what to do. I was better prepared for the second one since I had the instructions on how to use her inhaler if it happened again. That was the last of the episodes, and she didn't have a bad coughing fit yesterday or today. I think she's headed into the improvement phase of the virus since she seems to have slightly more energy, but isn't coughing as much. Of course the antibiotics and breathing treatments are probably also contributing, and that's a good thing.
All of this is happening just in time for Easter. Go figure. As a kid, I constantly had colds, various infections, and allergic reactions to medicines right around the Easter holiday. I can tell Judith is my kid, because she's following suit, save for the allergic reactions to the meds. And, naturally, John is starting to pick up the virus, and I'm hoping it won't be nearly as bad for him as it was for Judith or me.
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