A couple of weeks ago Drew got his first cold. I thought he was getting better, then he started to sound bad again. They put him on antibiotics about 10 days ago and expected that to clear things up, but he still sounds terrible. Hes happy as can be - eating fine, no fevers, happily playing - but sounds like hes got a permanent frog in his throat. So we took him back to the doctor today and they decided that they wanted to get rid of this once and for all and that IV antibiotics would be best to do that.
He hasn't got some life threatening cold (disease, yes; cold, no) that is going to bring him down. Hes simply got a ton of mucus in his throat and lungs and belly and they need to make sure that whatever bacteria is causing it gets taken care of before it sets up shop and starts to cause lung damage. There were several options and the IV antibiotics is where we are starting. Hopefully by this weekend he will sound much better and "cough-free" will be his baseline by which we can measure future colds and infections.
Another option that was discussed was a bronchioscopy where they would put a tube down his throat to collect some mucus and culture it to see exactly what bacteria there is and treat that specific bacteria aggressively. Without doing this, they won't know exactly what's down there but they are hoping to aggressively treat with a strong mixture of antibiotics that would attack and kill what could likely be causing th problem. I'm hoping this plan works because if it doesn't then they will do a bronchioscopy and that requires time in the OR and a breathing tube so that they can collect what they need from deep down in his lungs and i'm hoping we don't have to do the whole "kiss goodbye before surgery" ever again.
I asked the doctor if this is an indicator of things to come and the answer was most decidedly no. She said that sometimes kids (even kids without CF) get colds the come with a cough and the cough just lingers. That may very well be what this is. It doesn't mean that hes gonna be in the hospital again next time he gets a cold, but it also doesn't mean he won't. We are just going to treat aggressively because the longer we can go with healthy clean lungs the better things will be. It was a good meeting with the doctor today, even though we didn't want to hear that we will be heading back to the hospital for 2 weeks.
I'll post an update when I have a chance. Say some prayers for a speedy recovery, and a cold-free and healthy future.
keeping you all in our prayers!!
ReplyDeleteso sorry u have to have a hospital stay...prayers for your family
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