Paging Dr. A.

In lieu of recent vomiting activity events, I decided to give the CF clinic‘s respiratory center a call today at 9:30 am hoping to speak with one of three people, either his pediatric pulmonologist Dr. A., pediatric respiratory therapist S, or pediatric nurse K. I left a message with the receptionist indicating this since they were all seeing patients, in clinic, and on the phone respectively.

I received a call back from pediatric nurse K about 45 minutes later who spoke with pediatric pulmonologist Dr. A. He believes the increase in vomiting recently is directly correlated to his body fighting infection caused by swampy bacteria creatures pseudomonas aeruginosa, chryseobacterium indologenes and staphylococcus aureus.

I have been directed to carefully monitor his level of hydration and his activity level, meaning that he should be acting like himself and not lethargic. Believe me, at the moment, this little boy is anything but lethargic. Did I mention yesterday was his 9 month birthday? Anyway, I digress, back to Swamp Thing.

The balancing act continues, trying to find the correct sequence of medications, treatments, and feedings. Here is Nathan’s current schedule according to him (subject to change any minute second without prior notice):

Wake up from peaceful sleep, screaming my head off and eat 6 ounces.

Proceed to cough and gag, scare mama and dada and make them think I am going to vomit all over their dry clean only comforter again.

Suck down my oral antibiotic, Bactrim, with no contest because the pharmaceutical companies trick me with the ever so delightful flavor.

Make mama monitor me for an entire 30 minutes so that the Bactrim has time to absorb.

Resist sleep, sit on my beanbag watching a show, resist sleep, Albuterol in nebulizer, resist sleep, succumb to sleep. (Chest PT, Tobi in nebulizer).

Wake up, eat 6 more ounces while scratching mama’s face and pulling at her hair and lips. Repeat as necessary in order to replenish what vomiting has expelled, to increase calorie consumption, and to maintain level of hydration.

Continue to eat all day long anything and everything I can get my hands on including formula, meatballs, soil, branches, rocks, leaves, carpet fuzz, cat toys, etc. Cough. Gag. Gulp. Vomit.

Repeat cycle of treatments all over again in the evening.

If nothing changes over the course of the next several weeks with respect to the effectiveness of the antibiotics and the vomiting, then Nathan will require IV antibiotics.

In the meantime, I still believe there is an environmental component at least partially responsible for the increased mucous activity and I will be researching a whole house HEPA filter, such as this. If anyone has any experience with HEPA filters or filtration systems please comment below with your thoughts!