Shanghai Surprise

OK, so it's not a surprise, but next weeks trip to Shanghai has sure come up on me quick. I've only got 2 full days left to sort out all the packing, and remember important things like tablets and passports, EEk! The most worrying thing is the long (12 hour) flight, how the hell are we going to survive it with a 7 month old boy and a hyperactive 3 year old?

In the last week I have, amongst other things:

• Bought a new (diesel) car with little tiny DVD screens in the back to keep little troublemakers ;-) amused on long journeys.
• Cleaned up copious amounts of sick from the interior of the new car when the self same little troublemaker was sick after a party at her cousins.
• She was also sick all over Oscar as he was in the baby seat next to her...
  
• Gone out for a lovely Valentines Day meal (Malaysian!) with my lovely wife and drank copious amounts of wine and late night whisky.
• Woke up later on in the night as R became really ill and needed another one of my Omeperezole tablets to calm her raging gastritis (fizzy lager, wine, whisky do not mix!)
• Become extremely annoyed at the top 100 sex symbols when Pamela Anderson came higher in the chart than Brigitte Bardot, and Angeline Jolie came first ahead of Marilyn Monroe...
• Completely lost my enthusiasm for work, does anyone know where I can find it?
• Fell in love with Goldfrapp's last album all over again.

Itraconazole

I wonder why children like the colour of this? I had this on prescription for about a year after my last bout of ABPA type wheeziness about 5 years ago. It came on really suddenly, it was about the same time I was helping out laying some cables in the office, it may have occurred because I was working in a dusty environment. I was also moving house while R was pregnant, so all in all quite a stressful time. Anyway, I was suddenly really wheezy and struggling to get up stairs, etc. I went to the hospital a few times and they put on increasing doses of steroids which did improve things slightly, but after about a week they got my IGe results back which showed I was reacting to aspergillus, I was then put on the anti-fungal med Itraconazole, and I swear it was the weirdest thing; it was as if my chest suddenly became clear again, like after the third dose or something.
Anyway, I've decided to go back on it for a few weeks to see if it improves my LF at the next hospital visit. It's already cleared up my athletes foot anyway...

Annual

I had my annual on Wednesday, so no breakfast in the morning *although* I had to make Abby's and get my misses a cup of tea in bed with my stomach rumbling; life can be cruel ;-). Annoyingly, I arrived before any of the CF Team did and had to hang around with a rumbling tum in the temporary heart outpatient waiting room. First I had a shed load of blood tests (CRP, IgE, Glucose, aspergillus, theophyllin, SATs, etc) and the glucose tolerance test. I will find out the results from all of these in about a months time. I had an ultrasound as well (no, I'm not pregnant ;-)) to check whether my liver and kidneys were up to scratch. I had to get towed by wheelchair to the ultrasound because I was on the glucose test and walking the entire length of the hospital (and getting lost, obviously) would burn the glucose off faster than normal. I was initially very reluctant to do this, but by the end I was loving being pushed around by the two lovely nursers ;-).

My weight was up to 10 stone 9 for the first time in many years which was a small but great achievment; I hardly ever (not for the last 10 years anyway) go over the 10 and half stone barrier and have been making a real effort to eat 5 times a day (3 main meals and 2 inbetweeners), shoveling in high fat foods (like pork pies) for mid morning snacks. My FVC was down (FEV1 3.1 FVC 3.65; it was 4.1 in November) quite a bit which I'm a bit mystified by as I feel fine chest-wise, and I have been making an effort to do all my nebs, plus my sputum has been very light. (I normally do FEV readings in the afternoons, maybe my chest is tighter in the mornings? Or is the ABPA coming back?) Anyway, I've decided to give it a month and see if things improve, if not I'll hit it with the IVs. I am supposed to be starting the training for the Manchester Run this month, so it will be interesting to see if exercise improves things.

I then saw the new physiotherapist (who looks a bit like Maria from Holby, except with an Irish accent, mmmmm ;-)), the dietitian, and the social worker who is also Irish ("to be sure, you don't look that old"), who told me about the Willow foundation. Didn't see Mary Dodd, she hasn't done hands on physiotherapy for a while now but she's usually around. Hope she enjoys her retirement, she's been a great help to me over the years. I decided to ask the physio for a flutter device after hearing some rave reviews on the CF forum, but she gave me an accapella instead, so I'll give it a go for the next month or so, she seemed more keen on me doing exercise if I'm honest. Finally, after the glucose test had been completed I could have my tea, toast, chocolate, an X-Ray, and then escape!

Feeding Frenzy! Or lack of...

Oscar's night sleeping/feeding patterns are finally settling down to something reasonable; last night I gave him a feed at 9PM and he slept through till 7PM. This is great news because it means his stomach is getting big enough to retain milk long enough to stave of the hunger pangs during the night, (providing nothing else wakes him up like soaking his nappy or the loft getting really cold thanks to the Siberian winter wind.) This is great for two reasons; it means we get a decent nights sleep, and it also means we don't feel so bad about getting the parents round to babysit when we go out on the town ;-). The next stage for Oscar is to be eating more and more solid foods (baby food and mashed up versions of our food, e.g. Fish, Peas and Mash) going onto finger foods and the like. However, he seems more interested in tasting said food, then letting it all dribble out of his mouth, very entertaining...

Friday night I was left holding the babies again while my misses went out on the town leaving me to catch up on Heroes and Lost, this is a scandal because I've only been out once this year myself! Although she did end up at a dodgy club/pub in Stockport so I guess that is it's own punishment ;-). She also had the mother of all hangovers, her gastritis was so bad that she had to borrow one of my omaperazole tablets, now there's a liberty...