In case anyone had any doubts about Papa Bear's capabilities (which, if you've been reading this for any length of time, you really shouldn't), I went to Florida by myself for 4 days and everyone survived. All the regular treatments, medications, and tube feeds occurred on schedule. All the different pieces that needed cleaning and sterilizing every day got cleaned and sterilized. Every dose of Cayston save one was delivered on time. Baths were given nightly. People ate things. No one got scurvy.
I had a good trip, and it was certainly nice to have a break from the daily routine. I felt a little like a lizard on a rock, soaking up some much needed warmth and rest after a long winter. The first three days of the trip were for a work conference in Orlando. After the conference ended, I rented a car and drove to Miami to meet up with a dear friend who lives in Germany but who happened to be on vacation in Florida at the same time as my meeting. I hadn't seen him since he made the trek out to Madison to see us almost exactly 3 years ago, when I was pregnant with Lime. It was wonderful to see him again, and we had a great time reminiscing about all the adventures we've shared over the years, beginning when we met by chance at a campground in Greymouth, New Zealand, in 2001, which feels like two lifetimes ago at this point. It's good to be reminded that friendships can crop up anywhere, and that the best friendships endure the tests of time and distance; tests to which I seem to put all of my friendships these days.
Back on the home front, we're a day away from finishing this round of Cayston. Lemon seems to be all the way back to baseline at this point, so we'll stop at 14 days and hope that that is enough to see us through until spring gets started in earnest. We were scheduled to have a follow-up appointment with the GI specialist who prescribed our ursodiol next week. As I thought about the appointment, though, I really couldn't see any purpose to it. Lemon's last round of liver labs were in the normal range, and we won't draw any new labs until May. He hasn't grown enough to require a dose adjustment, and honestly even at our first visit, the doctor didn't do much besides press on Lemon's belly once and then calculate the appropriate dose of ursodiol based on his weight. I sent the doctor a message today asking whether he thought we still needed the appointment, and he agreed with me that it wasn't necessary, so we're cancelling it. Every healthcare encounter is an opportunity to pick up some nice bacteria from inside the hospital, so it's nice to have a painless way to eliminate one extra chance for exposure.
In other CF news, it is likely, but not definite, that I will appear in a brief interview on the local Madison NBC affiliate next month to raise CF awareness generally, and also to talk about the upcoming Great Strides walk. More details on that as they become available. I've never been on TV before so it should be an interesting experience. And yes, I am going to get right on that whole thing about setting up our team's Great Strides page!
