Thursday, July 21, 2011

Slainte*

Pills are an inescapable fact of life with CF : handfuls of capsules, tablets, and geltabs of multi colors and shapes precede every meal or snack.  One of Rees' claims to fame was his ability to swallow  enzymes just before his second birthday ~ no more sprinkling the capsule contents onto applesauce.  No more teary tantrums over eating that grainy applesauce before any other bite.  Halleluia!

He interrupted my typing here a minute ago, smugly adding that his record is now swallowing fourteen at once.  Showoff.

However, pills are more thorny now, in these teenage years, than in those troublesome toddler months.  He hates them.  He has attempted to cease Prevacid, but the 2400 mg of Motrin daily aggravate the stomach.  Dropping both is unacceptable because the high dosage of Motrin keeps lung inflammation down.  Culturelle helps with good gut bacteria, even with oral  (another pill) and inhaled antibiotics.  Extra fat soluable vitamins are necessary, because a person simply cannot get enough A, D, E, and K from food sources.

Every few days or so, I hear him banging and bashing around in the kitchen cabinets and I know that he's resenting the gathering and ingesting of fourteen pills before eating.  I don't know how he did pills at ACYC ~ with an audience?  Secretly?  Occasionally I wonder how he'll care for himself when he leaves home.  Then I shudder and pour myself a nice glass of red wine. . .

But care for himself he must.  And pills will always be present.  While my heart breaks at his angst, I am grateful for the technology that enables him to lead a good life.  Pills and all.


*Slainte!  (Which means, according to my Uncle Tom who lives in Ireland half the year, "Bright Health") ,
Allison

1 comment:

  1. I read your conversion story with great interest. In many ways it was similar to my husband's conversion story (a Baptist/ Pentecostal background). I'm looking forward to reading further posts on your blog.

    I will keep Rees in my prayers. A friend of ours has a child with CF and many of my family members have done the CF walks to raise money. My friend's daughter is named Julia and I was wondering if you could keep her in your prayers also.

    Oddly enough, when I was a child, I was tested for CF. My symptoms ended up being caused by another disease but my mom told me that our family physician was quite surprised when the test came out negative.

    I also read your post about the man who said that he was sure God wanted to heal your son and the comments people have made to you over the years. You have no idea how many times I've heard the same thing in my life. They were very hurtful. God did eventually heal me through a priest with a healing gift but I suffered for many, many, years before this happened. I had great faith and knew the Lord COULD heal me but He didn't (until last year that is). Only God can "see" the big picture. He has also given us doctors and often uses people to help us. An attitude that I often came up against when I was ill was that I must be doing something wrong or that it was a "punishment" but this is not true, though I have to say it can depress someone with a chronic illness when people say such things. I would just come back with "The Lord suffered, the saints suffered, and as a matter of fact I've never yet met a person who hasn't at some point or other!"

    Sorry for the long comment. Basically, I just wanted to let you know that I could relate a bit and will keep you in my prayers. God bless.

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