Cystic Fibrosis



For any of my regular readers, you will remember that Frew as a "breathing issue"...we lovingly call him Vader.  He has his own pulmonologist that we unfortunately have to see often (at $40 a pop), and we have run ever test imaginable on him - including an exploratory surgery (bronchoscopy) that resulted in an adnoidectomy and ear tubes.  A few weeks back my pulmonologist said the dreaded sentence, "I think it's time to rule out Cystic Fibrosis".  For those of you unfamiliar with such a condition, just think lung transplant, chronic breathing issues, and the liklihood that I would bury my child before I pass to the other side. 

Not good. 

So, on Tuesday, I took him down to the hospital for the test.  It's a sweat test, and I'm not really sure why modern medicine hasn't made the diagnosis of Cystic Fribrosis a little more concise.  Basically, they put gauze on his arm (to catch the sweat) and covered it with lots of saran wrap and tape (to make him sweat).  They were looking for an abnormal amount of chloride (salt) in his sweat.  Apparently, individuals with Cystic Fibrosis have an extraordinarily high amount of chloride in their sweat.  Who knew?

So, little saran wrap boy ran all over the hospital to work up a sweat.  He was covered up with two winter coats and snowboarding pants (which looked very odd in Tucson, AZ).  All the while that he ran and played, I mulled over how my life would change if he tested positive for CF.  I can say it was a sobering half hour.

She unwrapped "saran man" and promised the results by the end of the day.

When she called to report that his test came out "normal", it took me a minute to process it.  She was telling me that my worst fear (for the last few months) were not realized and I could relax.

He just has really bad asthma.

Thank goodness for asthma.