Treatments

So, some of you wonder what exactly we have to do differently with Ashton because of the fact that she has Cystic Fibrosis. Well, not much really, but we do have to do daily treatments. Twice a day she has to have two puffs on an inhaler. How do you get a baby to inhale meds from an inhaler? Whith a "spacer." This is a tube with a mask that the inhaler fits into. The medicine is the same stuff that is in Aaron's inhaler for asthma, Albuterol. We squirt the meds into the spacer, put the mask over her face, and watch a little flap that moves everytime she inhales. It has to move 10 times to insure she gets all of the medicine. Then we remove the mask, wait thirty seconds, and do it again. She usually hates it, but occasionally she just sits there and breaths. This is much better than having to use the nebulizer and sit with a mask over her face for 15 minutes. The purpose of this is to widen the airways so that the CPT (chest physical therapy) will be more effective. That is the part that was kind of wierd for me at first. We have a little rubber suction cup, looks kind of like a tiny toilet plunger without the handle, that we have to beat her with. Yes, that is right, we beat our baby. We call it "bopping" because it sounds better, and around our house we call this "doing Ashton's bop bop." We figure that sounds more "warm and fuzzy" as she is growing up and with Jackson now than "Let's give Ashton her treatment." So, we take this "bopper" and we bop her in 12 different places for three minutes each. That is four spots on her chest, two on each side, and four on the back. Often times she sleeps through it or will fall asleep during it, sometimes she will scream through the whole thing, but more times than not it is a combination of screaming, being content, and sleeping. It will only get worse as she becomes more mobile. When she is physically big enough, she will get a vest to wear that does the same thing with compressed air if I understand it right. I have never actually seen one, but I would imagine it would be better. I am about to post pictures of the inhaler, spacer, and boppers. We usually use two on her back and get two spots at once, and sometimes Aaron and I both do it and cut the time down. Instead of 36 minutes it might take 18 or 26... every little bit helps:)