Hello Family and Friends!
We hope this finds you all doing well in 2015! So far, this has been a wonderful year for our family! Zoe has been relatively healthy so far!! We are so grateful for this!!!
I struggled with doing this donation request again this year, I think because I feel like we say/ask the same thing every year. I don't want this to be the dreaded request every year....I want people to understand WHY we do this. It is very humbling and difficult to ask people to give up their hard earned money. We truly BELIEVE the CFF (Cystic Fibrosis Foundation) will be the first non-profit to find a CURE for a disease!! A disease that presently ravages 30,000 people in the U.S., including our sweet Zoe.
Zoe had her worst year yet in 2014. She had 4 extended hospitalizations. Almost her entire summer was spent on IV’s. She had only a few weeks total where she was not being infused and could enjoy her summer of swimming. This is really tough on a 10 year-old. She also dealt with a new bacteria, MAC. It is a horrible bacteria that causes lung damage. She had to start seeing an Infectious Disease Dr. due to this bacteria. The regimen to treat this bacteria is extremely hard on her body and drawn out. She was put on 3 strong oral antibiotics together starting last May and has remained on them since. The treatment course is 12-18 months. As I mentioned, these 3 meds are very hard on her body....at one point her liver enzymes went sky high! She also had more episodes of collapsed areas in her lungs. Needless to say, it was a tough spring/summer for all.
In order to keep Zoe as healthy as possible....a tremendous amount of medication is necessary. The CFF is the only organization in the U.S. that funds the research to get these life-saving drugs approved. Zoe is presently up to taking over 950 pills a month, 240 breathing treatments a month, 90 chest physical therapy/airway clearance sessions a month, 60 nasal rinses, and 60 nasal mist antibiotics. This regimen must be followed non-stop..... without a break. EVER. There are no vacations from these medications and therapies. This is why we need your help every year! We cannot do this without YOU!!
No donation is too small...every dollar counts!!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts....Scott and Jada
We know we are asking for donations late this year, Zoe's walk is May 16th, 2015.
You can donate anytime though!!
For super easy, secure dontions, go to: cffh.convio.net/goto/zoeforlife
Zoe for Life.... Our journey with Cystic Fibrosis....
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Friday, April 25, 2014
Zoe is our HERO!!!
Zoe was admitted Wednesday after fighting a cough for a couple of months. She went in for her clinic sick follow up after being seen just 2 weeks prior. In that 2 weeks time, she had lost 3.8 pounds (which is not good for a person with CF), was tired, short of breath and her pft's (pulmonary function test) had dropped from 95% to 65%.
After admission, they ordered a chest x-ray. The results were not news that we wanted to hear...she has Atelectasis (partial collapsed lung) again. Iv antibiotics were started along with 4 breathing treatment and chest physical therapies a day.
On Thursday her Dr. did a bronchoscopy. Always a scary OR procedure for a little one, sedation and scoping the inside of her lungs. Her Dr. found a large, thick mucus plug in her upper right airway. After using saline to loosen and dilute it, he was able to suction most of it out for cultures.
These cultures will hopefully show us what is growing bacteria wise in her lungs, so we can properly treat it.
Zoe is in good spirits! It seems no matter how much these little children with CF go through....they are tough! She is our HERO!!!
We will be in the hospital until next week sometime and then hopefully will be able to go home and finish her IVs there.
Next month on May 17th is Zoe's walk for the CFF. Please consider joining us in this fight for a cure! You can visit her page at : http://fightcf.cff.org/goto/zoeforlife
Sign up to help raise money....join us at her walk....donate....share...anything you can do will help!! Every dollar and prayer matters!!!!
Thank you more than you'll every know! We can't fight this battle alone....we NEED you!
Scott, Jada and family
After admission, they ordered a chest x-ray. The results were not news that we wanted to hear...she has Atelectasis (partial collapsed lung) again. Iv antibiotics were started along with 4 breathing treatment and chest physical therapies a day.
On Thursday her Dr. did a bronchoscopy. Always a scary OR procedure for a little one, sedation and scoping the inside of her lungs. Her Dr. found a large, thick mucus plug in her upper right airway. After using saline to loosen and dilute it, he was able to suction most of it out for cultures.
These cultures will hopefully show us what is growing bacteria wise in her lungs, so we can properly treat it.
Zoe is in good spirits! It seems no matter how much these little children with CF go through....they are tough! She is our HERO!!!
We will be in the hospital until next week sometime and then hopefully will be able to go home and finish her IVs there.
Next month on May 17th is Zoe's walk for the CFF. Please consider joining us in this fight for a cure! You can visit her page at : http://fightcf.cff.org/goto/zoeforlife
Sign up to help raise money....join us at her walk....donate....share...anything you can do will help!! Every dollar and prayer matters!!!!
Thank you more than you'll every know! We can't fight this battle alone....we NEED you!
Scott, Jada and family
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Positive thoughts and prayers needed!
One of these days I'll be able to write good news in this blog! I'm positive it will happen!
Zoe was re-admitted back into Wolfson Children's Hospital yesterday to try and help her persistent Atelectasis. The left lung has many very thick mucus plugs causing her left upper lung to stay collapsed. She is being treated with a new IV, it is targeted for the Aspergillus that is present in her lungs. Also her Dr. ordered her an IPV machine to help try a different approach with breathing treatments and chest physical therapy.
We are hoping and praying things will turn around for our sweet girl....she is such a little fighter!
Thank you for all positive thoughts and prayers....again!!
Take care of you and yours....
Jada
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Hospital again..... :-(
After 4 xrays over the last month....persistent coughing while Zoe is sleeping...she's sooooo tired. She went to her CF Dr on Friday. They repeated another chest X-ray. Dr. came in room saying he was going to give Zoe a manual on how to make a lung xray look better...it was a joke....but I knew that meant her xray wasn't better..
He then proceeded to tell me that her Atelectasis (collapsed lung) is worse. Not good news. He then told me we needed to do a sedated Bronchoscopy. This is a bit scary due to the collapsed lung.
So, tomorrow morning we will be at the hospital at 6:30 am....checking in for her procedure. If you don't know what a bronchoscopy is...please google it....
We really appreciate your prayers, thoughts, love, etc.....
Take care of You and Yours!!!
Jada
Monday, July 1, 2013
June 2013
The CFF Great Strides walk was a success! There were many supporters for our little Zoe. Bonefish Grill brought their Zoe for Life team...it's always so wonderful to see their smiling faces...we love them all!!
My brother, Andrew, his wife, Courtney and their 3 children made a surprise appearance all the way from Tn.! Had a few tears shedding with that!
Zoe started getting sicker again after the last post in May...the Omnicef and Prednisone helped temporarily. Then they tried oral Bactrim...she just got worse. By the weekend of June 9th, she was unable to participate in swimming or her martial arts. Her cough was bad, she was tired.
Tuesday, June 11th, her Dr wanted to see her. When they checked her O2, it was only 93. Her O2 is almost always 99/100. Number 1 reason she was so tired. Then it was time for her pfts (pulmonary function test). Her best pft in the past year was 106%, it was 59%, that is a huge decrease in lung function. Then her Dr listened to her lungs: Crackles and full of mucus. Time for an xray and direct admit to Wolfson Children's Hospital. She was admitted on IV Cefapime and 3 breathing treatment/chest physiotherapy sessions a day.
On Day 5 of the IV Cefapime she broke out in hives. They discontinued that IV med, started IV Zosyn. She broke out in hives again the next night. Her Dr. switched her to a complete different family of drugs. She started IV Tobramycin and IV Cipro, with a 5 day course of Prednisone. Her cough wasn't getting better yet.
Then came the night that was very scary for us...her O2 dropped to 91 and stayed that way. There had to be a reason for this sudden decrease in O2. Her Dr. ordered another chest X-ray that day. When he came in our room at 5:30 that day to discuss her X-ray...I knew it wasn't 'good' news. She had a condition called Atelectasis (partial collapse of lung).
We discussed what needed to be done. She would be doing 30 minutes 3 times a day of her vest (chest physiotherapy machine) and 10 cycles every hour of a spirometer. Hopefully that would 'open' her lung back up.
Thank God it worked! Her O2 went back up to 94/95! We were so happy and grateful...there were a lot of people praying for our sweet Zoe.
It was a long 10 days in the hospital with many ups and downs! She is a fighter though! She was released to go home on: IV Tobramycin, IV Cipro, an Epipen, Prednisone, 3 times a day breathing treatments and CPT, and a home O2 monitor.
She is presently still doing IVs. She still has some coughing going on. We are praying for this to completely go away and allow her to have a carefree summer...
Cystic Fibrosis is a fight. A daily fight. Zoe has never missed a single treatment since her diagnosis at the age of 1 yr. It's not an option in her life...it is just the way it is. This hospital stay showed us how quickly CF can raise its ugly head. We will battle on.
Take care of you and yours....
Jada
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Great Strides time of year!!!
I can't believe I haven't updated the blog since Christmas.....I'm so sorry!
Zoe was admitted in January for IV antibiotics. She did 3 weeks of them...and was still coughing. She then moved onto an oral antibiotic for 4 more weeks....she was finally cough free again! She has now caught a lovely upper chest infection causing a wet cough....so she is back on Omnicef and 5 days of Prednisone. Hopefully that combo will kick it before her clinic visit next week.
Our son, Austin got married last month to his fiancé of almost 2 years! He has a great job and they relocated to where his shop is...a few hours from us.
The kids are all still doing their Kung fu and CSW...they love it!! Alex is an orange belt and all 3 girls are yellow belts now!
We have had many visitors to the Ose House...and we love it!!
Zoe's Great Strides walk is next weekend....in lieu of it I am going to post a poem...from a CF parents perspective.
Some Thoughts From Us Parents of CF'ers.....
There are so many people that have no idea how lonely CF can be or how hard it is to be a parent and yet be so powerless! It is like you are standing by a lake...watching your child struggle to stay above water and you have no idea how to swim!
We live everyday hoping for a cure. We live in fear that our child won't live long enough to experience it. We watch our kids take pill after pill and medication after medication everyday. We do breathing treatments and chest physiotherapy several times a day, taking almost 3 hours. We give our child 15 different medications each day...and that's when they are well. When they are sick they are in the hospital for 2-3 weeks on IV antibiotics. We watch our child scream as they get held down, poked and prodded by the staff. We watch the tears run down their faces as they look at us as if we are the ones hurting them.
Our children develop bacteria that takes over their lungs. It makes them work so much harder to breathe. It makes their lives shorter. Our children have an over abundance of mucus in their bodies, it also overtakes their systems. Some of our children cannot run around all day because they get out of breath easily.
Even though our children are so sick, they always seem to smile even at the hardest times. They are tough.
We listen to the comments from people that think our children "look" healthy, therefore, they must be fine. But yet, their lives are withering away right before our eyes. We get dirty looks from people when our children cough so bad that they vomit. Our children are not contagious.
We stay awake all hours of the night listening to our children cough so hard that they can't even get a breath in between spasms. We stay in the hospital holding them, waiting for them to get better, hoping that they aren't too weak to fight.
We live in fear because we know one day our children will get sick and not get better. We pray it won't be this time.
We watch families we know lose their children to this battle. We pray everyday that we never have to go through that pain, that we won't have to hold our child until they take their last breath.
We hold onto hope even when things seem impossible. We sometimes feel useless. We fight everyday, with our children, right by our sides, in the hopes that we will not lose this battle.
We keep fighting for our children. We stay strong for them.
We are the parents of a child with Cystic Fibrosis.
Take care of you and yours....
Jada
Please consider donating by clicking on the Great Strides badge on the right...every dollar counts!!!!
Zoe was admitted in January for IV antibiotics. She did 3 weeks of them...and was still coughing. She then moved onto an oral antibiotic for 4 more weeks....she was finally cough free again! She has now caught a lovely upper chest infection causing a wet cough....so she is back on Omnicef and 5 days of Prednisone. Hopefully that combo will kick it before her clinic visit next week.
Our son, Austin got married last month to his fiancé of almost 2 years! He has a great job and they relocated to where his shop is...a few hours from us.
The kids are all still doing their Kung fu and CSW...they love it!! Alex is an orange belt and all 3 girls are yellow belts now!
We have had many visitors to the Ose House...and we love it!!
Zoe's Great Strides walk is next weekend....in lieu of it I am going to post a poem...from a CF parents perspective.
Some Thoughts From Us Parents of CF'ers.....
There are so many people that have no idea how lonely CF can be or how hard it is to be a parent and yet be so powerless! It is like you are standing by a lake...watching your child struggle to stay above water and you have no idea how to swim!
We live everyday hoping for a cure. We live in fear that our child won't live long enough to experience it. We watch our kids take pill after pill and medication after medication everyday. We do breathing treatments and chest physiotherapy several times a day, taking almost 3 hours. We give our child 15 different medications each day...and that's when they are well. When they are sick they are in the hospital for 2-3 weeks on IV antibiotics. We watch our child scream as they get held down, poked and prodded by the staff. We watch the tears run down their faces as they look at us as if we are the ones hurting them.
Our children develop bacteria that takes over their lungs. It makes them work so much harder to breathe. It makes their lives shorter. Our children have an over abundance of mucus in their bodies, it also overtakes their systems. Some of our children cannot run around all day because they get out of breath easily.
Even though our children are so sick, they always seem to smile even at the hardest times. They are tough.
We listen to the comments from people that think our children "look" healthy, therefore, they must be fine. But yet, their lives are withering away right before our eyes. We get dirty looks from people when our children cough so bad that they vomit. Our children are not contagious.
We stay awake all hours of the night listening to our children cough so hard that they can't even get a breath in between spasms. We stay in the hospital holding them, waiting for them to get better, hoping that they aren't too weak to fight.
We live in fear because we know one day our children will get sick and not get better. We pray it won't be this time.
We watch families we know lose their children to this battle. We pray everyday that we never have to go through that pain, that we won't have to hold our child until they take their last breath.
We hold onto hope even when things seem impossible. We sometimes feel useless. We fight everyday, with our children, right by our sides, in the hopes that we will not lose this battle.
We keep fighting for our children. We stay strong for them.
We are the parents of a child with Cystic Fibrosis.
Take care of you and yours....
Jada
Please consider donating by clicking on the Great Strides badge on the right...every dollar counts!!!!
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Merry Christmas!!!
I guess the old saying, "No news is good news" applies to my posting blogs....
I didn't mean for it to be over 3 months since posting....but it is actually because the saying must be true!
Zoe has been wonderfully well since her 3 weeks of antibiotics in August!! I'm pretty sure this is the longest she has gone without oral antibiotics to treat a cough/infection in... I can't remember how long!!! :-)
We truly feel blessed!
Alex, Madison, Sydney and Zoe are all taking Kung Fu, Jiujitsu, and Gung fu...they all absolutely love it! It's been amazing to watch them learn the different stances. They have already received several stripes on their white belts.
Zoe cannot do the full impact parts, like sparring or the Jiujitsu due to her Port A Catheter. Which, by the way, has been amazing for her!! Her anxiety about going into the hospital is pretty much all gone. We apply a numbing cream to her Port site an hour before any needle is put into it...so she feels zero pain. IV's are no longer a horrible anxiety issue for her.
We spent a lovely Thanksgiving in south Florida with Scott's wonderful parents. They spoiled us with tons of amazing food, fishing and boat trips! They are such a blessing to us!!
We are now gearing up for Christmas! House is finished being decorated...now the baking and shopping starts. All the kids will be here this year except Dalton. Donna and our grand baby, Ella, will be here though. Dalton has a job opportunity to get his foot in the door at a business close to us....hard choices have to be made sometimes in order to look out for your family's future. We will miss him terribly!
I hope and pray that you and your's are doing just as amazing as we are right now....it's crazy how 3 months of your daughter not being sick can make you "almost" feel normal.
Take care of YOU and YOUR'S.....
Jada
I didn't mean for it to be over 3 months since posting....but it is actually because the saying must be true!
Zoe has been wonderfully well since her 3 weeks of antibiotics in August!! I'm pretty sure this is the longest she has gone without oral antibiotics to treat a cough/infection in... I can't remember how long!!! :-)
We truly feel blessed!
Alex, Madison, Sydney and Zoe are all taking Kung Fu, Jiujitsu, and Gung fu...they all absolutely love it! It's been amazing to watch them learn the different stances. They have already received several stripes on their white belts.
Zoe cannot do the full impact parts, like sparring or the Jiujitsu due to her Port A Catheter. Which, by the way, has been amazing for her!! Her anxiety about going into the hospital is pretty much all gone. We apply a numbing cream to her Port site an hour before any needle is put into it...so she feels zero pain. IV's are no longer a horrible anxiety issue for her.
We spent a lovely Thanksgiving in south Florida with Scott's wonderful parents. They spoiled us with tons of amazing food, fishing and boat trips! They are such a blessing to us!!
We are now gearing up for Christmas! House is finished being decorated...now the baking and shopping starts. All the kids will be here this year except Dalton. Donna and our grand baby, Ella, will be here though. Dalton has a job opportunity to get his foot in the door at a business close to us....hard choices have to be made sometimes in order to look out for your family's future. We will miss him terribly!
I hope and pray that you and your's are doing just as amazing as we are right now....it's crazy how 3 months of your daughter not being sick can make you "almost" feel normal.
Take care of YOU and YOUR'S.....
Jada
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