Clinic appointments and reality checks......

Who says CF clinic appointments cant be fun?? Natalie has a HUGE personality that takes over any room that she is in....she's dominating, she commands attention, and after all, who could resist?? she's just sooo darn cute! CF clinic is much like visiting family,albeit strange and remote family, but family just the same, after three years the nurses are like cousins that you didn't hang out with when you were young and the doctors are kinda like that Uncle that you don't mind talking to, but always talks about something you don't want to hear about :) They know when Natalie is coming because she literally runs into the nurses station at the clinic looking for our nurse, and looking for stickers. They are always happy to humor her. We draw on the bed paper in the rooms, play with the toys on the wall, and wait, patiently wait for what could make our day better, or could make the ride home a mind blowing rush of "what ifs".

Ive known since Natalie was 5 days old that she had Cystic Fibrosis. Even so, perhaps Ive just not fully accepted it. I understood the pancreatic insufficiency, the need for enzymes, I just assumed/hoped/prayed/imagined that her lungs would always be healthy...soooo apparently that's just not the case. In a dramatic turn of events, the problem at today's clinic appointment was not her weight, in fact her weight today ranked her in the 70th percentile for her age (WOOT!!!). The issue at hand is Natalie's lungs, there are marked changes from the last chest xray to the current chest xray. What does that mean? What do we do now? Well, quite frankly, it means that we hang on for dear life....fly by the seat of our pants into the wide wonderful world of "The Vest"....sounds scary, sounds intimidating, sounds like a big fat failure on my part.....however, in all actuality, its just the nature of the beast....a corner we must turn, a fight we readily accept, and might I add, expect to win.