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Christmas Tea

Every year we have Christmas Tea at the Jefferson Hotel here in Richmond. I don’t actually remember how many years we have done this as it just seems like we always have. Only the girls go and only girls that are old enough — and I decide what is old enough. This year was Caroline’s first year to go and also the first year for my daughter-in-law Shannon.

The hotel is beautifully decorated in a traditional Christmas manner. You can walk around and look at all the decorations and visit the gift shop — Sarah and Caroline really liked the train made totally of gingerbread and candy. They also enjoyed just walking up and down the huge set of steps and visiting the gift shop. It is something that all the girls look forward to every year. My daughter, Meredith, is expecting her first little girl sometime in the next few weeks, and I know that one day she will be bringing her daughter to Christmas Tea. It really is a lovely tradition.

Several of my older girls couldn’t make it, as they are away at school, or live in a different state. I do miss having all of them there. This is a tradition that I think we will continue for a long, long time as young and old can enjoy this celebration of Christmas together and it makes the little ones feel so special.

Daughter-in-law Shannon

CF Day

Last Friday was Bethany’s CF appointment. This time I decided to take my camera and document her visit — something I have never done since she started going to the CF clinic. In case you don’t know what cystic fibrosis is : Cystic Fibrosis is a life threatening disease that affects the lungs and digestive system. A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that —

Clogs the lungs and leads to life threatening infections that cause lung damage.
Mucus also can block the digestive tract and pancreas.This mucus stops digestive enzymes from getting to the intestines to break down food.

On Friday, Bethany had the usual done — weight, height, blood pressure, check her heart, pulse-ox, throat culture and she had to blow the candles out on the birthday cake (on the computer, of course) to check lung function. The thing I worry about most at this time is that she does NOT culture Pseudomonas. Pseudomonas is a bacteria that can be difficult for people with CF to get rid of and can cause lung damage. She usually doesn’t culture much — Staph, but that’s about it. I feel blessed and just hope and pray this culture is ok.

Bethany has actually been a very healthy little girl. She has never been hospitalized for any CF related illnesses and is very seldom sick. She does occasionally have a cough that needs an antibiotic for about 15 days. She gets two albuterol treatments, two hypertonic saline treatments, two 30 minute sessions on her vest (airway clearance system), one prevacid, one CF Source vitamin, and approximately 16 Zenpep capsules each day. She is very good about not complaining about any of this. She can even pop 4 Zenpep capsules in her mouth and take a drink and swallow them all at once. I don’t know if I could do that. Getting her to gain weight is a problem, and we are constantly trying to get her to eat. Most people with CF have trouble gaining weight and keeping it on. So, we work very hard to get Bethany to have snacks between meals and eat high calorie foods — if we don’t, we will really hear it from the nutritionist at her appointments. Checking her weight is always a little stressful for me, as it is not uncommon for the doctor to tell me she is not gaining enough and that her BMI is too low.

So, a few pictures from her check up.

Below, she is watching Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer — The TV is the one fun thing there and she really gets into it. That is probably because we don’t watch much TV at home. I don’t know what was happening but she doesn’t look very happy about it.