I hope I'm wrong, but it feels suspiciously like we're hurtling towards another course of IV antibiotics (which inevitably involves an admission to hospital, of various lengths).
The typical reasons for IV's are....
He is more symptomatic than usual (coughing, wheezing, rattley chest).
His sputum has been sent to the lab and has grown a new bug, or a heavy growth of his usual suspects (Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter).
His extra oral antibiotics (Cipro) to which these bugs should be sensitive to, has not reduced his symptoms.
His lung function drops (FEV/FVC).
Me saying this might seem mighty weird to people around him.... I think if you bumped into Isaac today, or most other days, the only thing that would cross your mind was what an unbelievably handsome kid he is.... not how he is fighting chronic lung infections every day. It's not inconceivable for him to come from the football pitch, trying to give it his all for 60 minutes, but then go straight onto the ward.
To me, it's not so weird. I developed an uber sensitive 'cough radar' soon after his diagnosis at three weeks old; Give me a whole bunch of kids in a mile radius, and I'll be able to say if it's him coughing (I get right funny looks as I wince when I hear him coughing from three rooms away - And I do literally wince, it pains me so).
He certainly doesn't fit the 'horribly ill' description you might think CF means. Typically when we get to hospital, he looks like the healthiest kid on the ward. But he's not. Plus he's very unlikely to tell you that he feels unwell, because that just not his style, and this, frustratingly, is his norm, so he wouldn't think to.
It's his 12th Birthday next week, so I'm very much hoping that I am wrong. If I'm not, this would be his shortest gap between IV courses ever, which hints of a disease progression that I am not ready to accept.
