It's just shy of 11:00 pm in the Smith household. I'm watching a very comforting scene. Alicia has Samantha positioned over a pillow, slightly bent backwards so that she can perform one of the chest physical therapy positions on Samantha. For her part, Samantha is patiently doing whatever her mother asks her to, her only request being to be able to watch her Disney video.
Samantha has been ill for a few days now. We've been in contact with her CF nurse and we've seen the pediatrician. It's just an upper respiratory infection at the moment, so nothing really to scare us. Still, Sam is miserable. Even though we have her propped up in bed, she coughs so hard that she can't sleep.
That's why we're awake with her right now. Alicia went to check on Samantha just before we turned in for the night and she was awake, coughing. “I want love pats!” she managed pathetically between coughing fits.
Samantha has never asked to have love pats before (our family name for chest PT). Even after years of being a CF patient, Sam is just now starting to understand the benefits of her PT. It does help her move junk out of her lungs for at least the time period immediately following the session. For that, she is grateful and has come back for more tonight.
I am sad for my little princess. Yet I am grateful tonight because she is finally starting to understand how important these treatments are. This has been a long time coming, and Alicia and I will gladly sacrifice some sleep to help her understand.
We're heading back to bed now. I hope all of you CFers are sleeping soundly. God bless you! And rest well Samantha!
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8 years ago
2 comments:
That's a HUGE step!!! Come to think of it, I could use some "love pats" right now!!!
Ronnie
Ha! Well, hopefully she'll start picking up on more parts of her treatment and she'll be healthy again soon. Just found out that she's got an ear infection, so we've got an antibiotic for that.
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