CF Clinic - sick visit

On Sunday, Azer was by himself watching a movie when suddenly, he was coughing non-stop and was struggling to breathe. He did an albuterol breathing treatment to see if it would stop. Unfortunately, he continued to cough for two full hours. He was exhausted by the time it started to get better. He coughed up the most mucus I've ever seen at a time. At the end, he coughed up some brown mucus. He said his upper airways hurt after this happened. The on-call doctor said to take him to the ER if another attack happened. Luckily, it hasn't happened again.

He went to clinic yesterday to get a PFT and an X-ray to see if there were any significant changes. His lung function was down slightly, but within normal range, especially for it being allergy season. The doctor said his X-ray looked about the same from last time. The doctor wondered if the attack was a mucus plug coming up. Just to be safe, he will be on a course of oral antibiotics.

Azer lost even more weight from last month, and a total of 8 lbs so far. The dietitian came in to discuss what he's been eating, and what else we can do to change this trend. The appetite stimulant medication he is on seems to help, but with evenings being so busy, he isn't able to take it consistently. Even though his appetite has been pretty good, he hasn't been making meal times a priority. They would like to try another appetite stimulating medication and see if it helps him at all. This medication has the possibility of interacting with other medications. They had to do an EKG first before they could prescribe this medication. It took a while to get a good EKG result, because he wouldn't lay still! 😄

In addition to possibly starting the new medication, he has to start doing an extra can of formula. The doctor warned him that people with CF tend to lose lung function along with weight.