Toby and the Bacteria

Back in August Faith was having a lot of snot and boogers. It didn't matter how many times I cleaned her nose out she was sounding congested. I never knew someone could have so many boogers. Just to be safe I called her nurses Melissa and Lori to inform them of what was going on and ask them for advice. They asked us to bring her in just to be safe.
   On August 1st, 2012 we brought Faith into the CF clinic. They decided to suction her again as she sounded congested. So once again they stuck a tube into her nose that went down the back of her throat. I decided to not watch again and was expecting her to scream. However, she just sat there and took it like a champ. I was so proud of my little girl. They sent the swab to the lab to be tested and we went home to wait for the results. A few days passed and Faith sounded way better so we assumed that the results would come back normal. However, we received a call about a week later that the results had come back and Faith had two strands of bacteria. In order to treat these strands she would need to be put on antibiotics. One of the medicines she had to take required a nebulizer. We had to go pick up the nebulizer from a place called Vital Air in Calgary. The options was to rent it for $40 a month or buy it for $120. They recommended we buy the machine as we would be using it for another medications in the future.
  The next day we went and bought the machine and went to the hospital to get her medications and learn how to do the treatment. Upon arrival they told us the two strands of bacteria they found were Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus. If she had just had the Staphylococcus they would not have put her on any antibiotics, but due to the Pseudomonas they were going to treat both. So she took two antibiotics (Novo-Lexin for two weeks three times a day and Tobramycin for a month twice a day). The one was just a oral medication we put directly into her bottle. Tobramycin was a medicine that was put into the nebulizer and vaporized which she inhaled through an oxygen mask. The treatment took 20 minutes. We named the treatment TOBI and told Faith she was getting a mini facial. The first time we put an oxygen mask on her little face she screamed her head off and we had to restrain her. We tried to sing songs, hold her hands, etc but nothing worked. It was the longest twenty mins of our lives. Afterwards I remember leaving the room and balling my eyes out. You never want to see your child in pain. So we decided to wait until she was asleep to do the treatment as she was not aware of what was going on. For the most part it worked although we did have a few occasions where she woke up in the middle of treatment and screamed. Needless to say when the month was over I was happy. We took Faith back to the hospital and had her tested to see if the bacteria was gone. This time they did an oral swab and went down the back of her throat. She sat there like a champ and did not even cry. Our little girl is beyond tough and inspires me everyday with the stuff she goes through. A week later we got a call from the clinic to let us know all the bacteria was gone and the medicine had worked. We did a celebration dance with Faith. I am sure she had no idea what we were doing but she had a big smile on her face. There will always be a risks with Faith catching bacteria (hence why we are so anal about germs) but for now she is bacteria free.

Faith during her treatment