Avery's Bronch & CT

During Avery's CF Clinic visit in April, our doc told us that he wanted to do a bronchoscopy and CT scan to get some more info on the state of Avery's lungs. A baseline CT scan is typical around year 2, so we were expecting that. But the bronch was decided on more so because she's been on antibiotics for various colds here and there along with her psuedomonas infection last summer. Little did we know that she was also about to grow psuedomonas a few days later after the culture at clinic. :-/

A bronchoscopy is a procedure in which a little camera is sent into the lungs to check out how they're looking. In addition, the doctor is able to take samples of mucous in various areas by shooting saline out into portions of the lungs and sucking it back up with the mucous itself (called a "lavage"). The whole procedure is obviously done while the patient is under anesthesia, so thankfully Avery could also get her CT scan and all of her annual bloodwork done at the same time!

So after a month of Tobi treatments (morning and night, 25 minutes each on the nebulizer in addition to her other treatments... yuck), we headed into the hospital. Mimi flew in for it and we're always SO grateful for her help. Especially in times like this.  Thank you Mimi!

There's a lot of waiting at the hospital... checking in, checking in again, being taken to pre-op, changing into a gown, waiting for all the docs to explain what's happening, signing lots of papers, etc.) But our girl was a total trooper. She was actually hilarious and only wanted to sing her FAVORITE song We Will Rock You the entire time. We had to keep it on repeat during most of the morning (the doctors and nurses all thought this was hilarious as Avery sang along and danced each time).

While this was a pretty minor procedure, it is never fun to take your children to the hospital. And it's actually awful having to watch them be put under (especially when they are screaming bloody murder for you and turning bright red with their anxiety and sheer desire to get the hell out of that hospital room). Thankfully this time we were able to be with her when they put her under (last year she was too young for us to stay with her). It was not pretty. I cried right along with her.

But our little CF warrior was amazing. The procedure went well and we were finally allowed back to be with her while they let her wake up. Girlfriend did NOT want to wake up, she just wanted to snooze (per usual). We turned on all the lights, rocked her, and finally turned on her song. And what do you think happened next? Groggy and sore-throated, she started to wake up in a fog, eyes barely opened, and softly/groggily "sang": "weeee wihhhh raaaaahhhhk oooohhhh". That's our girl!

Video montage of sample moments with We Will Rock You throughout the morning:

Overall, Avery's results were as good as they could have hoped for. Our doc said he saw about what he expected CF lungs to look like, nothing too drastic at this point, and no signs that psuedomonas had colonized. He did unfortunately find a higher white blood cell count (of some kind, can't remember exactly which) which is typical in CF lungs, but slightly elevated enough to keep her on her nighttime pulmozyme nebulizer treatments indefinitely. :-/ We were bummed to hear that part but so thankful to hear the rest of the news.

That's it for now! We've got another clinic visit next week and will be able to talk with the doctor more.