August Quarterly Appointment

We had our 3rd quarterly appointment for the year last week. One week ago today actually. There is actually stuff to report this time:) Usually this is not good, but today it is! Ashton measured large enough around her chest to get a vest! Yaaay! We received it yesterday and she used it last night and this morning. She is such a little champ. It CAN'T be fun, but she did it anyway. We are supposed to ease her up to 30 minutes, 10 minutes each at 3 progressively faster speeds. She did 25 minutes last night and 23 this morning! We only stopped this morning because she needed to use the bathroom... even though I took her right before we started. Hey, she's little, and if you could see how this thing shakes you, you would understand, ha:)

The vest is what we do in place of the "bop, bop", or Chest Physical Therapy. It basically blows up around her chest like a blood pressure cuff and shakes the mess out of her. The problem we have now is that she is supposed to take two puffs on her inhaler prior to the vest session, just like she did prior to her bop, bop. Well, we have been doing the inhaler (with a mask) and her bop, bop while she is asleep. Somehow I have to figure out how to get her to do her puffs now. I am sure we will figure it out....

Here is the other news. This news is neither good or bad...yet. I called today to check on her cough culture results because they had not called us as they usually do. I figured it was becasue we have a new doctor, due to the fact that our old doctor was a fellow, and she graduated after our last appointment in May. Well, that was not the case. I did speak with a new nurse, and she indicated that it was because there was a "bug" growing that was growing very slowly and they could not yet tell what it was. She said they may have to send it off to another lab. She also said that although it was a "gamma negative, rod," (this refers to the shape and other characteristics of the bacteria) which is characteristic of pseudemonas, the lab tech indicated that it does not look like pseudemonas. This is one of the two big bad bugs that we DO NOT want! So, I have to admit, that was a little concerning. However, we of course know that our God is an awesome God and He reigns, however it turns out. She has a little bit of a runny nose and an occassional cough, but nothing major right now.

Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures or maybe even a video of "vest" time soon. This is a whole new era for the Stewart Family... no bop, bop! Wow...