Don't Kiss Your Honey....

When your nose is runny, cause you may think it's funny but it's snot!

On Thursday Ollie had an appointment in Birmingham for a monthly checkup and a pulmonary function test.  She has been battling a head cold with terrible congestion and a runny nose...like constantly licking her upper lip runny. A pulmanary function test is done to see how well the lungs function. With this test, doctors are able to see if there is an area of the lungs that needs attention and can treat it before it becomes a problem. It can also tell us if we are on the right track and doing all we can to keep Ollie healthy.

The appointment was for 8:30 AM so we headed up Wednesday night and spent a little time with John's brother Jep and sis in law, Valerie. Of coarse our visit mainly consisted of sitting around Ollie, facinated by her reactions to Dred (their almost 100 lb pitt bull). We had a good time hanging out and O loved scooting around their house, chasing after the dog and exploring new things.

The next morning prior to our checkup was a little hectic. Ollie couldn't eat within 4 hours of the pulmanary test. We decided to wake and feed her at 4:30, which went better than expected. She drank an entire bottle and went right back to sleep. Once we arrived at the clinic, we were taken right in to begin the process of the test. Good thing too cause lil O was starting to get hungry.

In order to get accurate readings, Ollie needed to be asleep. She was given a siringe of some nasty stuff to drink. It took a little coaxing to get her to drink it all...YUCK! She was OUT in less than 5 minutes. When I say out, I mean like, head wobbling backwards and all. She was taken back to the exam room to begin the test and we were sent to the lobby to wait. The good part was that we met with her nutritionist during this time (something we do at every checkup). After a about and hour and a half, we were called back to talk with the doctor and to see Ollie. As it turns out, the test could not be done due to hiccups. The runny nose made her snore a bit as well.

The funny part was that she was so doped up from the magic sleeping drink. She would spill milk all down her chin and laugh about it. She was really funny!

Although her test could not be done, her checkup went very well. Her weight gain is good and her lungs sound good. We should get the results from her culture sometime next week. Pseudomonas has stayed away for over 2 months now and we hope that this culture will be negative and O continues to live bacteria free.

What Will You Do Today?

I've had a great day! I've had a wonderful day! (besides the fact that my sewing machine is acting up) It's been a really good day. If you only read this blog for Ollie updates, then go ahead and skip this post. This is merely a random post of my thoughts....and thats kinda scary....

I made new friends today. As Ollie and I were leaving wal-mart I was listening to the news.  It was mentioned that some girls were set up outside WAAO selling raffle tickets and that the proceeds from these raffle tickets were to be given to the CF Foundation. What? I had to go and see what was going on. As I walked up and introduced myself I noticed that one of these girls looked very familiar. Well, turns out I had seen and talked to her before, on several different occations actually. Her name is Megan and her son has Cystic Fibrosis. Megan and I met the day our babies were being tested for CF. This was the day we sat in denial for 3 hours waiting for the result of the sweat tests (the test that confirms CF). We spoke breifly that day but our minds were elsewhere. As time went on, Megan and I saw each other occationally at checkups. We spoke but never exchanged names or details.  As it turns out Megan is from Montgomery and has family  here. Her family wanted to raise money for the CF foundation. WOW!

I made 3 new friends today. Friends that are fighting the same war. What a wonderful feeling! Now, not to pat ourselves on the back, but, turns out Ollie's Army is well-known round these parts. Our little "gang" has made quite an impact. Megan confessed that everywhere they went to raise money and awareness, they were asked if they were with Ollie's Army (she had no idea what Ollie's Army was). Funny huh? Guess we got the CF thing pretty covered around here.

Another reason today has been so good is because of people who care. People who go that extra mile just because. I learned today that someone special cleaned the nursery of the church we have been attending. I am talking scrubbed every surface and cleaned every corner. They also bought new sheets for the crib. This was all done to prevent illness. This was done to protect Ollie. I am truly moved. We are not even members of this particular church but already feel like family.

To wrap up this random post of random feelings I will say this; It is so easy to make a difference, big or small.

 What will you do today?

Think about it.

God Bless.

Live, Love, Breathe!

Raffle tickets are still for sale. Tickets are $5.00 and all proceeds go to the CF Foundation. 3 winners will be drawn Friday morning "live" on WAAO. Prizes include Valentine Baskets with gifts ranging from t-shirts, food, gift cards, manicures, candy and much, much more. If you would like to purchase tickets please let me know.

Get Back!

Because Ollie has been taking her medications mixed with food since she was 5 weeks old, she is a pretty experienced eater. She loves food and lately we have been letting her try new things. Some of her favorite foods include, sweet corn casserole, sweet potatoes, English peas, chicken and stars, turkey and rice, macaroni and beef and cereal puffs. Although she loves table food, it's not a whole lot of fun having her hang on our legs at the dinner table whining for food...it's kinda like having a little puppy. Ollie also enjoys feeding herself and does quite well picking things up. The other day at wal-mart we were exploring our options when we came across these:

I figured, whats the harm?

As you can see, O loves them and is not willing to share. Remember how I said "like a puppy"? Well, let's change that to a bulldog! She's a sweetheart but when it comes to food- Get back!

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Crash Course

I know, I know! I've been hearing it for the past week-Why haven't you blogged lately? Well to answer that question is quite easy.....Ollie, A.K.A. Boogie Monster! I've recently added the monster. Come on over to my house and see her around 6 or 7 at night. The time when she should be winding down she is a total MoNsTeR!

Anyway, here is a little crash course of what Boogie has been up to:

Ollie is pulling up and standing. She's doing quite well but has yet to master the sitting back down part. All day I am sitting her back down only to be followed by her pulling right back up. It really stinks at night when she pulls up and cries because we can't just tune her out. Knowing that she is scared and can't get back down we are in and out of her room until she falls asleep. (I am open to suggestions)

Her favorite toy (of the day, this particular day anyway) is this little activity center. She will stand up at it and bang away. I am now hearing (and other moms will understand this) blue, yellow, 1, 2,3, green, a,b,c, 4, 5,6, blue, red, yellow, l, m, n,o,p, up, down, open, close, hello, blue, red, green, 1,2,3,4,5,6, bye, bye, red, 1,2,3, lights on, lights off. Yeah, it's that random cause she just bangs away at it and to top it off, it's usually accompanied by her shouting, BYE, BYE, BYE, BYE, MA,MA,MA,DA,DA,DA,DA.

Moving on.

Ollie has finally made her way up to what we refer to as "big girl bath". No more whale tub. She loves playing and splashing around. Looks like lots of trips to the pool and beach this summer...we've got a little fish on our hands!

Ollie has also made new friends. This is Sally Seahorse and she gets SUPER excited everytime she sees her.

Ollie is now drinking out of a sippy cup....well a little anyway but were working on it. Sometimes she loves it, other times she wants her bottle. I will be so happy when I no longer have to wash bottles...UGHHH.

Lately I have been trying to exercise more as well as spend quality time with O, soooo I've combined the two. Today Ollie had her first trip around the nature trail. She LOVED it...I mean seriously! Smiling the whole time. Guess there will be more walks in our future.
She also takes part in my home workouts. I have to use her play mat for my knees and sit ups and she makes sure to crawl over, plop down on the mat and clap. Guess she's letting me know that it belongs to her.

And, you can't go to the nature trail without a quick stop at the Dream Park. However, it was roped off but don't fret. Being the rebels we are, we marched on in like we owned the place and played on the swings for a little while.

Dang, alot has been going on...let's speed it up

Playing in sheets.

Putting hand prints in concrete (in our new drive might I add-whoop, whoop!).

Looking adorable in her new pink monkey PJ's from Aunt Sherri.

And I can't have a post without a video clip.

Here are some of O's dance moves. She loves music and loves to clap. When she hears any kind of music, she will stop mid crawl sit back and dance and clap. She also claps during car rides. It's pretty cute.

Whew! That only took me like 4 days to finish!

Now, if you made it this far into the post, you are a pretty dedicated Ollie follower so I need your help. I am currently working on a cookbook as a fundraiser for Ollie's Army and I need recipes. If you would like to share you recipe, please e-mail me at lynseydubose@gmail.com. Cookbooks will have pictures of Ollie and friends as well as many recipes from the community. This is a really easy way for you to help us cook up a cure for CF. Ads are also available for purchase. Please contact me for details.

Live, Love, Breathe!

Easy Breathing....Well, Easier Anyway

WhooooHooooo! John and I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this bad boy! It's an AeroChamber Plus and it makes inhaled therapy sooooo much easier. We haven't had the opportunity to use it on Ollie because they failed to send the albuterol inhaler with it, but from the demonstration we received at O's last doctor's visit, albuterol can be administered in 2 puffs as opposed to 10 minutes of inhalation with a nebulizer. YeeHaw! Anything that makes our daily routine easier is a breath of fresh air....literally. Although this treatment will take the place of the albuterol solution for now, we will still use the solution as needed for cough or wheezing...which so far has never occured! Whoop! Whoop! It's not that we are complaining about her treatments, because we will do WHATEVER it takes to keep her healthy. It's just mainly sad for her (you try holding down an 8 month old and give them around 45 minutes of inhaled treatments twice a day when Dora only holds her attention for a little while and all she wants to do is play). We also heard from her doctor on Monday and Ollie's pseudomonas is still gone. That's 2 months which means no more Tobi (inhaled antibiotic) for the time being and we can move forward with the Hyper tonic Saline Therapy research! Hootyhoo! Excuse all the excited expressions, but most of you understand my response to something cool like this. BOOOOYA! On a more serious note, this is all thanks to you who have helped raise money and awareness for CF. With your time and donations, this research and the new AeroChamber is made possible. So, Thank You, YOU ROCK!!!

Ollie and I are both so excited that John will be home tonight (weather permitting). As I type this blog, he is in the air somewhere between Vegas and The ATL. Yay! John has been away from home since Tuesday morning and we have missed him bunches. He and his brother Jerry, flew out to Vegas Wednesday morning where they met up with some friends and did a little gambling. Thursday morning, in a rented car, they drove on down to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. He had an awesome time, especially since Alabama won!

He are some things Ollie and I have done since he's been gone. As you read this, keep in mind that I am an AUBURN fan through and through but I did cheer for Alabama last night. Why is the world would I want Texas to win. Ollie has been practicing on clapping skills and I had good intentions to send this video to John before the game. Ollie is decked from head to toe in Alabama...even her socks. And, for the record, her shirt says something to the liking of "you'll be crawling too, when the Crimson Tide is through with you".

This morning Ollie and I decided to make a surprise for daddy as a "welcome home, we love you". We made John a chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. Just to add to color I put an Alabama "A" on it. It is taking lots of strength to keep out of it. Yummy! As the cake baked I feed O. She ate so much food tonight. Sweet peas and squash and sweet potatoes (all with loads of butter). She then topped it off with a cookie. As she ate her cookie, I added icing to the cake. She finished the cookie and was getting a little fussy so I improvised (she needs to gain weight, right?). I will probably regret this later.

Of course, next it was bath time. Wow! She was a mess but LOVED every minute of that icing. She is also saying who she loves the most-Mama.

The Alabama Cake. YUMMY!

Do you remember when I said I would probably regret this later? Well, below is later. :)

Now, hurry home daddy so we can get some hugs and eat some cake!

CF Checkup

On Wednesday, my mom, me and Ollie ventured out in the cold and headed to Birmingham's Children's Hospital for a CF checkup. Since our last visit in November which took over 4 hours, I have been dreading this visit. Well, to my surprise, it all went very well. Although the visit did take around 2.5 hours, we had plenty of time with Ollie's doctor and nurses and received a good report. As many of you know, at our last appointment, Ollie's culture came back negative for pseudomonas (bad bacteria that grows in lungs of cfers). She has remained on an array of antibiotics to keep this bacteria from growing. At our visit they did another culture to see if it has stayed away. I did find out from O's doctor, that pseudomonas could still be present even with a negative culture. Boooo! He feels that if this culture is negative it is a good sign that the bacteria has left the building. Even so, Ollie will always at risk for pseudomonas. At each visit we meet with a pharmacist, an RN, a social worker, nutritionist and her doctor. We go over her current prescriptions, diet, weight, questions and upcoming treatments and studies. This was the first visit in which they were all pleased with her weight gain...thank goodness. We have been adding butter to everything she eats to make it high in calories and yummy too. Lucky kid! It has paid off. Ollie now weighs almost 16 lbs and is in the 21st percentile, which is wonderful considering she was in the 3rd when she was first diagnosed. Yay! More good news we received was that we can now use a different treatment method for administering albuterol (inhaled medicine for opening airways). Instead of the nebulizer that takes around 10 minutes, Ollie will get an equivalent dose through a puffer. This alone, will cut down her treatments significantly. Wooo hooo! Other than that, we are waiting and praying that the pseudomonas stays away. If so, we will have the opportunity to participate in an inhaled hypertonic saline soluntion study (basically a breathing treatment inhaling high doses of salt). Because CFers don't have normal salt transport in their body, this treatment is suppose to help break down mucus in lungs, therefore helping with breathing and reducing the risk of lung infections. I'll keep you posted on the study. Other than that, she is wonderful! Told you it was a great visit!!