Clinic Visit April 2012

Our clinic have changed the way they operate. We get assigned a room to stay in and everyone comes to visit us. This means that there is no separate clinic for different ages and different bugs as they used to do for infection control.  We all go on the same day, but as we aren't sharing a common area (like a waiting room), the risk of cross infection is much lower.

So when we turned up, I couldn't stop looking at all of the other kids. It sounds strange, but I hadn't seen a CF "big kid" before. I couldn't help but think, that will be Ruby in 10 years time. Of course I know that Ruby will be going to clinic forever, but this was a little glimpse into the future. Instead of feeling sad about it, I was just a bit curious  and fascinated. These kids were confident and self assured. Some qualities I already see in Ruby. The nature of the disease?

First things first, the weight in. And we have a gain! In fact, it was quite a good gain and Ruby now weighs 10.44kg. She is in a good proportion to her height. This keeps the dietitian happy and we don't have to discuss supplements of any kind.

Next we see a respiratory doctor . It's not her normal doctor and I feel like we didn't get as much out of the consultation as we normally do. But he said Ruby's lungs sounded clear and he is going to get some info to me about the phthalate that is still used in Creon.

After the doctor comes the CF nurse. She brings in the suction machine to collect Ruby's sputum. This will be tested for any bugs that may be growing in her lungs, but we a re particularly looking out for how much pseudo is growing. If the growth is heavier than last time, despite being on very strong nebulised antibiotics, we will be admitted to hospital for IV antibiotics.      (please please let's hope the tobi has done its job)

Sputum collection always causes tears but is soon fixed with a specimen jar full of jellybeans!

Checking her sats

Next on the list is our super friendly physiotherapist, Alli. We go through our current physio regime, and practice our "vibrations" with Ruby. We also do a trial of hypertonic saline. This involves testing Ruby's oxygen levels before, during and after the treatments. She tolerates it well. Hypertonic saline is used through the nebuliser before or during physiotherapy to help the lungs move out the mucus. It also re-hydrates the lungs. When using the hypertonic saline, Ruby gave quite a few big chunky coughs. This is the result we want, it means it's doing it's job. But it was also quite confronting. More evidence that her lunged are full of goop. It's not nice to hear your 20 month old cough like a smoker.

So now our treatment regime will be:
hypertonic saline
chest physio therapy and vibrations
inhaled tobi
twice a day. It should take about an hour each time. We borrowed a new nebuliser from clinic as the previous one we borrowed seemed to take so long for each treatment. We are looking at buying our own nebuliser because let's face facts - she is always going to need it. They range from $450 to $1900.

What else? Oh, we picked up some meds.

That's about it. Ruby slept the whole way home. Our next visit is at the end of May. Now I will go online to my CF mumma friends and have a good debrief. xx