Winter would like to emphasize that it is not done with us yet. To wit, it is currently snowing, and we are on Cayston once again. I had a feeling it was coming even as I was writing last week's post (the Cayston, that is, not necessarily the snow). As a CF parent, you become unbelievably attuned to your child's cough. You learn to hear the differences in tone, frequency, and degree of productiveness and understand their meanings. You learn how to contextualize the cough with the other things that are going on--the energy level, the nasal congestion, the puking. You factor all that information in, along with your current degree of hopefulness, and then try to make a decision about whether to start antibiotics. Based on the totality of Lemon's symptoms, I wasn't that hopeful. Plus, it had been 3 months since we'd done any antibiotics, which is about as long as we ever go. I also had a trip coming up for work, and I wanted to be confident that things were under control before I left.
So, we put all that together and decided to start Cayston on Tuesday morning. It was definitely the right call. Lemon responded to it almost immediately and began feeling much better. Cough diminished, puking gone. He does still have a residual wet cough, but I think that's mostly an effect of the Cayston helping him to clear things out. It's that particular "I'm not sick anymore, just getting the junk out of my lungs" kind of cough. Totally different than the "I'm still sick" cough. So, we'll do another week of Cayston and then hopefully call it a wrap for this round.
In tremendously exciting news, Lime managed to pee on the potty for the first time ever this evening. We've been talking about the potty a lot lately, as he will need to be potty trained if he is to go to the summer camp that I have in mind for him and Lemon. He knows what needs to happen, but never managed to quite connect the whole operation until this evening. After he did it, he was very proud of himself, leaped off the potty, and declared, "I go to summer camp! Undies!" We tried to convince him not to get ahead of himself, but I am cautiously optimistic that a half-decade of continuous diaper changing may soon draw to a close. I will not miss it. At all.
Tomorrow morning, I leave for I think my longest trip away from the family since both kids were born--I will miss 4 consecutive bed-times. I'm sort of looking forward to the trip, although I do feel guilty about leaving Papa Bear alone for that long with the maniacs, one of whom needs inhaled antibiotics delivered 3 times a day, in addition to everything else. I know he'll manage just fine, but it's a demanding routine to do solo. The fridge is full of chili, macaroni and cheese, and his favorite coconut blondies, so at least he won't starve. I have to imagine that he won't succumb to scurvy if it's only a few days without consuming any identifiable plant matter?
