Me and my Boys

Hi I'm Emma mum of two boys Olliver and Charlie thought i would do this blog to vent and to well just get things off my chest really! I'm a stay at home mum as charlie has undiagnosed health problems at present he is treated using the cystic fibrosis protocol. In case you don't know cystic fibrosis is the uk's most common life threatening inherited disease, each week 5 baby's are born with this and 3 young lives are lost. The reason charlie has not got a concrete diagnosis is due to the fact that he has had no faulty gene yet detected, but there are a lot of these genes around and many that have not yet been discovered. Anyway the way charlie is affected by his illness is he gets recurrent chest infections as in one every 4 weeks at the moment, he has a lowered immune system he suffers from nose bleeds has severe reflux has problems absorbing vitamins has to have a high calorie diet to keep his weight up as when he has an infection his appetite is the first thing that goes and he grows recurrent bugs in his lungs which lead to infections. In any one day he has 2 lots of chest physio each session lasting 20 mins this helps to loosen the thick secretions that are in his lungs to enable him to cough or in charlies case sick them up!! He takes a multivitamin 2 different antibiotics 3 inhalers 2 tablets one powder medication that is put straight onto his tongue and a liquid to help move the food out of his stomach quicker if he has an infection he would also take an extra antibiotic. At the moment he is well he has just got over a bout of pneumonia his second one in a few months and his last cough swab is clear, so good news there. so as you can see things a quite hectic in our house! He attends hospital every 6 weeks and we have a fantastic community nurse and physio should we need advice about anything before hand. Charlie is 2 coming up 3 and ollie is 8, 9 after Xmas. Ollie is not without his problems he suffers from aortic valve stenosis asthma and chronic lung damage due to both his lungs collapsing as a baby and only one re inflating properly. Although he had a rocky start he keeps very well now (touching lots of wood!) he only attends hospital once every 6 months and is only on a bit of medication so is doing very well. Hope that was a good intro and i haven't bored anyone too much! I will blog more when i have more to tell you!