This has not been the summer of travel. Between not being able to fly, not wanting to take on a big road trip, and not having anything much compelling within reasonable driving distance, we've pretty much stayed put. So, it was sort of a shock when I actually left the city of Madison for 24 hours. The rest of the state is still out there, as it turns out. On Thursday evening, Opa picked me up and we drove down to Lake Geneva, about 90 minutes away. On Friday morning, we got up early and walked all the way around Geneva Lake, a distance of 21 miles. Not how everyone would choose to spend their day off, but Opa and I know a good time when we see one. It was a glorious day out and a much needed break after a really busy week at work. Thanks to Papa Bear for keeping the troops in line while I was away!
On Saturday, more "travel," as we went down to Old World Wisconsin for a private tour, which is what they are doing since the park can't be open at capacity. We went to the shoemaker's shop, the blacksmith's shop, and the wagon repair shop, and did a hands-on activity at each. The kids were pretty thrilled about it--what kid does not dream of using a big hammer to strike red hot steel, with their parents' permission, no less?
In CF news, a little bit of a mixed back. Lemon and I went and did his labs and x-ray. Everything worked like clockwork--why can't they be like this all the time? We went in, got blood drawn, x-rays taken, and a throat swab done, all in 30 minutes!!! Lemon was a champ throughout and enjoyed his McDonald's hash brown afterwards.
All of Lemon's blood work came back normal or near-normal. His GI doc sent me an email that a new specialist has joined the team and he will be transitioning Lemon over to her. So, we have an intake appointment set up with her for October, along with a Fibroscan, which is a different (newer? better?) liver imaging technology so maybe we will get a more detailed picture of what is going on there. Lemon's X-ray looked similar to March, maybe slightly better although it sounds like all of this is a bit of a judgement call. His culture came back with two bugs that he's grown before. But, usually we only see one of them in the culture and now the second one is there as well.
So, between that, the x-ray, and the fact that he's been a little congested/throat-clearing of late, we decided that it might be time to do a quick course of antibiotics, to see if we can't tamp things back down a bit. He has been antibiotic-free since March (!) which is about as long as he ever goes between courses, and we'd like him to be in top form for the start of the school year. We decided to go with an oral antibiotic, augmentin, since that is both easier on Lemon than the inhaled and also more effective against one of the bugs. So we'll see. Doing the antibiotics is neither the obviously right thing to do, nor is it an obviously wrong thing to do. So, as with so much in CF, we'll give it a try and see what happens.
In domestic developments, we are one step closer to setting up a home-school type arrangement for the boys and a couple of their friends, more details to follow soon but I am growing increasingly optimistic that they may learn something in the 2020-2021 school year. And, our new stove arrived today so I once again have an oven that can produce heat.
I mean the home made english muffins and donuts were good, but I am ready for some bread!
