Line Up

We are just home from a great trip to Kentucky and our adoption reunion. We typically stay at a hotel every year. This year, we all stayed at our friends house which was such fun. I went up to the guest room to do a treatment (vest and nebulizers). I didn't think much of it until my daughter came in to ask me a question. Her friends all followed her. I reassured them that it didn't hurt and it actually kind of tickled. They looked skeptical so they all lined up to put their hand on my vest. One wanted to know why I was doing that and I explained that it keeps my lungs healthy. Another shared that her grandparent smoked so they didn't have healthy lungs. Someone else wanted to know if it gave me big muscles. I flexed my arm and she looked reassured. They all filed out and went back to playing. A couple came back again to feel it one more time. One of my daughter's earliest friends in life came back too. I don't think she believed that it didn't really hurt.

I find it amazing how kids are natural caregivers. They didn't turn around or run out. They weren't turned away by the noise. They were curious and concerned. They were also very accepting. It is a great lesson for all of us. I think somewhere along the way we lose our freedom to ask questions and support each other. I find sometimes people don't really understand cystic fibrosis but they are afraid to ask. I think my sister gets the most interesting questions. People take her aside or pull her in the other room to ask how I am doing when I am across the room. It doesn't really make sense to me.

Today, I am very grateful to be reunited with my bed and my cute dog. I am also grateful to my friend who babysat Hank all weekend and my friend who took care of my garden and raspberries. I am very thankful for some more crops waiting for me and a cancelled meeting today. I am looking forward to a little flexibility in our schedule.

Other news around here is that the official report is not in yet but the clot seems to be almost gone in my arm. I can stop having my blood drawn every week and I told the nice people who were sending me a new machine to check my blood to just keep it. My theory is that it wasn't gone in December because I still had a picc line and wasn't really able to move my arm very much. When the line got moved to the right arm, my left arm was doing all the work and the lifting. The tech told me that everyone is different and some people just have them for life while others clear up but usually more quickly than mine. (I can't imagine that anything about me would be stubborn.) The hearing test did come back with loss that will likely just stay that way. I was told to come back in two years but was given permission to use the big gun antibiotics if I need them. I was given three weeks off of visiting my friends at the U which is a huge promotion for me.

Blessings,

Cindy