Friday, January 22, 2010

Brennan


This is my Brenno monkey.  He's delicious or so says the nurse at the Pulmonary clinic.  He looks healthy, right?   Well, actually not so much.

He's 18 months old.  He's had pneumonia three times.  The first battle was at 6 months old at Christmas.  That following January, he stopped growing.  He didn't gain any weight from January to June 2009.  He put on a few lbs last summer.  Randomly in October, he started eating and gained more weight.  He's even got a little belly these days.

But we are still battling the respritory issues.  We finally got into the Pulmonary Clinic at Children's Hospital a couple of weeks ago.  Dr. Williams there was fabulous.  He thinks that Brennan has asthma (like my other 2 boys).  But, Brennan also has several markers for Cystic Fibrosis.  So we needed to rule it out.
I took Brennan to Children's for the sweat test on Monday.  I was not prepared for that test.  First of all, the nurse did not explain what was happening during the test.  And she kept call Brennan Brandon.  Oh no you didn't!

The short version is that the test is horrible.  It involved things that look very similar to jumper cables.  There was a lot of crying.  And Brennan didn't like it either.

We thought we'd have results on Tuesday.  No such luck.  Wednesday also came and went with no news.  I was totally edgy.  I slept a lot (that's my  body's natural reaction to stress) but did not feel rested.  So, Thursday morning I called the doctor's office (again) and left another message.
Our sweet nurse, Linda called back within an hour.  She had been out sick all week and still sounded terrible.  She reported that she couldn't find the results but she was looking.  I was about to lose it.  I needed a Diet Coke IV drip.

In about another hour, Linda called back and I took the call in the middle of class.  (See, I break rules from time to time.)  She started out by telling me what is considered normal.  I thought "We are in big trouble."  Brennan's score is 35.  Normal is 0-40.  Most doctors like to retest at 30.  Dr. Williams is out until Monday so she doesn't know if he'll want to retest.  OK, thanks I say.

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?  RETEST? PUT MY BABY THROUGH THAT AGAIN???

I was pretty upset.  But then my Twitter friend Myra reminded me "hold on to normal part.  hear that - not the high".  Then I spoke to Ryan he finished talking me off the ledge.

This morning I feel good.  Brennan doesn't have CF.  I feel rested.  My stomach isn't in knots.
Indeed, life with Brenno is delicious!

Here are all 3 boys on Christmas morning in the snow for good measure:

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