Annual Blood Draw and New Tests! Yikes!

Jeb kind of has a thing with needles.  He doesn't like them.  This is no surprise - who does?  However, being that his birthday is in the fall, he now associates the flu shot with his birthday.  Whenever he talks about his birthday, he always ends with, "And will I have to get any shots?".  It could be January and he will ask it.

The thing that he always forgets is the annual blood draw and I decided to bring it up early to get him ready.  We are a month past his birthday, so he seemed to think he was in the clear and was far from pleased at the prospect of two shots...especially "the one that takes all the blood out of my arm!"

So, we headed to see his CF team and they were all overly friendly and he knew why.  So, we started off with the flu shot because he seemed ok with this one over the other.  And then he saw the needle.  Long story short, his big brown eyes were brimming with alligator tears. 

To break it up, we tried a new test - the lung function test.  When you hit five years old, you start to do this.  Breathe for 6 seconds as hard as you can.  Jeb couldn't do it and I was getting very frustrated.  Until I tried it.  It sounds much easier that it is!  We'll keep practicing.


Blow and keep blowing!!!

After a full check up (btw, we hit 60th percentile for height! Yay!), we did the blood draw.  Funny thing, he watched it go in and never flinched.  "Wow, that is a lot of blood," was all he said.  The things we worry about!

Ready to head into the appointment.
 (Mask on just in case he runs into another child with CF - don't want to exchange germs!)

Brave boy!

On a research note, Dr. McColley updated us on the Vertex drug and it's effect on Jeb.  They are currently in clinical trials to see if they can combine Vertex with another drug and see if it will reverse symptoms on the majority of CF patients.  Jeb is not included in this since his mutation  (R117D) is not common.  But, Dr. Mc thinks that if this works, Jeb can participate in a clinical trial in 2 years that would be similiar to this.  We are getting closer!