GREAT checkup!

Well, we had a wonderful visit at the CF clinic yesterday, thanks for all the warm thoughts and prayers for my little guy! His lungs checked out CLEAR as a regular non-cf kid again! WOO HOO! Joey didn't show any pseudomonas on his throat culture (it's still probably still there, but they've almost irradicated it, which was what we were hoping for!), his blood work showed good levels of A, E and K, which he was low on the last two times, his lung functions were new personal highs, and it was just GREAT! Another WOO HOO! We're now done with 2 of the oral antibiotics and are going to stay on the two extra nebulized medicines plus his other regular stuff for the next 4 months to keep things going good. He's got another new way to inhale the albuterol, this time is easier and less time stealing, which is good also! There was one little bomb that kind of unsettled me, but I'm not letting it cloud our good day.

It's so easy as a parent of a child with a chronic disease to get overwhelmed by numbers. Numbers, numbers, numbers. I freaking HATE numbers. They were always telling me the number of something on a culture or a blood work report, but I had no clue what that number MEANT to my boy. I finally got smart and asked for a range of normal healthy child numbers and cf numbers and THEN to be shown where Joey's number fit on that chart. It gives me a much better feel for what's going on and how to judge progress on different problems. It took me SEVEN YEARS to figure out to ask for this kind of information. There should be a book of THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO ASK TO FIND OUT WHAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO KNOW for parents. Through this whole information sharing episode, I found out that apparently, Joey's been in the beginning stages of liver disease since he was an infant. NEVER FREAKING KNEW THAT. WTF? I'm sure someone explained something about it long, long ago, but your mind just shuts off and there's no physical way to process everything when you're faced with a sick child and a whole new overwhelming world. It put a bit of a damper for me on the whole thing, but apparently his liver is not any worse than it was before, it's just fuxxed up. Steadily remaining fuxxed up, which apparently is a good thing. cripes almighty. If I ever got organized enough, I would write the damn book. But, first I imagine there's a buttload of other things I'm supposed to know to ask about that I have no clue about. ANYWAY it was a great checkup, the kid's feeling good, and momma's happy!

To celebrate on our way home and also due to the total embarrassment of me at the clinic where Joey was showing the doctors how THREE of his toes can stick out of the end of his tennis shoes, we stopped at Target for new tennies for the boy. I got him TWO new pair, one for school and one to change into for outdoors. The toeless shoes (not just a hole mind you, a GAPING CHASM at the end of his black shoe where the white shocks just shown right through) are now relegated to lake shoes.

Well, I needed to celebrate too, right? For not only having such a healthy boy, but for being such a healthy momma eating right and exercising and all that. right? RIGHT? Let me tell you, the 2nd book I should write is of life's advice. Right after don't go grocery shopping while PMS-ing and hungry, is Life's Lesson #2... Don't go into the yarn shop when you're feeling exceptionally entitled and PMS-ing and hungry. My excuse was that I need some dk weight yarn to use for the upcoming KnitOff. The knitoff pattern hasn't been posted yet, so I don't know how much yarn to get. We have to make sure to have ENOUGH yarn, right? RIGHT? Well, after finding a very pretty earthy colored hand-painted merino in the right weight in Colinette yarn, got 10 skeins. After the knitoff it could become a lightweight sweater of some sort. At this point, I should have LEFT the Studio. um, well, see, this Twisted Sisters merino somehow started calling to me. Calling loud. Those Twisted Sisters have big mouths. Well, it doesn't make any sense just to buy a couple of skeins, right? RIGHT? Nope. I got 6. Now I realize that the sweater that it gauges up for that's been in my pile of patterns actually will need a couple more, so back to the Studio I go for a few more.

I swatched my ass off last night and got about 2 inches done on the start of Everyday Tweed. I know something's wrong with me, casting on for a WINTER SWEATER when spring's coming around the bend. Now I'm thinking maybe I'll frog it and make it into Wendy Barnard's Essential Stripe without the stripes, but with my mottled, pooling crazy ass twisted sisters blue yarn.

This is how crazy I've been at the end of this bet. KNOWING FULL WELL that I may be frogging the thing, I just HAD to knit anyway. ANYWAY. I couldn't even take the time to spend THINKING about which pattern to do, just HAD.TO.KNIT. cripes.

Pictures of yarn tomorrow, I promise.