Our first big event of the day was a meeting with a clinical dietitian. She interviewed Kaid and Drake for over an hour, asking about the foods we eat. As their mother, this proved to be entertaining as well as painful. The boys just couldn't think of anything that I make for dinner. Hello? I cook! Drake said we sometimes have frozen pizza. My sister can back me on this one - we very rarely eat frozen pizza! When she asked what vegetables they liked, Kaid mentioned peppers, and Drake said, "I like pepper on my macaroni and cheese!" Not quite the pepper we were talking about! The point of the meeting was mainly the consequences of steroids on the boys' bodies. Kaid and Drake need more calcium than the daily recommended amount because steroids can cause your bones to become thin and brittle. So, they need 6 servings of dairy a day - so we will not be switching to soy like I had planned. It's ok, I was just wanting to give them the healthiest diet possible. She gave us a lot of advise on how much of each food group they need. Basically, it's more protein, low salt and fat, and lots of fruits and vegetables.

A crew from the Today show was following a patient here today. We could be in the background of some of the interview - eating our lunch. What a claim to fame! It will air on Tuesday, and is featuring a boy named Max who has allergies to peanuts, coconut and sunflower seeds. They were doing a food study on sunflower seeds - which means they were giving him controlled amounts of sunflower seeds to eat to see if he had grown out of the allergy. His mom sure hoped so, because she said that it's not a commonly labeled ingredient and that he had been accidentally exposed twice already. Drake and Max played Wii together today, and he is a sweet little boy!

Kaid and Drake had exercise tests today. Again, that means they jogged (or walked if winded) for 12 minutes, stopping every 4 to check breathing. Before Kaid started, he blew a 436! That's a great number! As soon as the 12 minutes were over, he blew a 408, and within 15 minutes - with no inhaler - he blew 436 again! :) I don't have Drake's numbers, but I know that when he did the exercise test the other day, he dropped 16% with the exertion. Now that he is on his new medicine, he only dropped 9%. We'll take that!

Kaid couldn't eat or drink from 10:00-2:00 today to prepare for his ph-probe. That means that he couldn't even drink during his exercise test, which was at 1:00! At 2:00, a child specialist (someone who's job is to make yucky procedures less awful for kids - it's a college degree) took Kaid to a room to explain the probe to him. First, you get a huge squirt of saline up each nostril, then a huge squirt of lanocane, then a long tube. There is nothing pleasant about it. He cooperated, but hated every minute of it. After the tube was in place, it was off to x-ray to make sure it was properly located. It was, so they secured it with tape to his face and gave him a computer type backpack to carry around. On it, he charts when he eats, sleeps and coughs. It was an extremely unpleasant couple of hours, but he is now a seasoned pro and handling it well. He can't eat fruit or drink fruit juice except for bananas, no gatoraide, and no koolaid or pop because the acid will throw off the test results. This is testing for acid reflux, which can present itself as asthma - and can even travel to the nose and sinuses to cause trouble for you. He wears it for 24 hours, so he and I are staying the night at the hospital tonight so they can monitor him. The picture of him shows him making the sign language letter "a" because he had just talked to Amy Rose on the phone, and that was his shout out to her! Thanks for the call, Amy!

At 3:00, while Kaid was painfully trying to swallow his chocolate milkshake, our doctors came in for our clinical - which just means to go over what they've discovered so far.

Drake's results so far:

They feel that he needs to pretreat with a rescue inhaler (xopenex) before soccer. He is to take his peak flows everyday (to see what number he blows) and know what zone he is in at all times. When he is in yellow or red (like traffic lights - you want to be in green - red is bad!) he should pretreat with the inhaler before playing outside, etc. His peak flows have been lower in the morning and rising during the day. While this is normal for asthmatics, they don't like it, and hope that his new medicine (advair inhaler - 2 puffs morning and night - and it's the medium dose, they have 45, 115 and 230, and they are both on 115) should balance him out. His test results showed that his body reacts really well to his rescue inhaler, so we thank God for medicine that does it's job. We believe God can heal through medicine. (Although don't get me wrong - we'd love the miracle of complete healing!!!) His chest cat scan was normal. The sinus scan showed that he has a condition called, "chronic mucosal thickening." Let's face it, sounds like thick snot. He suffers from this most likely from day to day exposure to allergens. The treatment for this is a nasal saline wash twice a day with Veramist nasal spray afterward. It's hard to believe, but they took him off of his allergy medicine (allegra) because they think this will work on it's own. His skin tests showed allergies to rag weed, alternaria (common soil mold), and dog - but they suggested he stay away from all furry animals.

Kaid's results so far:

His peak flows show a lot of variability that the doctors want to see evened out. Again, this means he blows better during the day than in the morning. His pulmonary function test and cat scan of his lungs showed air trapping. The is common in asthmatics, but not something you want. It's like his lungs are hyperinflated, like an over blown balloon. On the scan, some areas are darker. This can improve with time and they believe the new medicine will even this out. He isn't stuck with it forever, so we are praying that it will improve! He had minimal thickening in his sinuses, and no allergies! Isn't that great news?! Of course, he is to keep on top of his peak flows and know his zones. In addition, he is to guess his peak flow before taking it to become more in tune with his asthma.

On Monday, we have speech therapy to teach Kaid and Drake some breathing exercises. When Drake, especially, blows hard and long during his breathing tests, he tends to cough. They feel that the speech therapist can help with that.

Also on Monday, we are going to try to visit the Denver Mint. I told the doctors that Kaid wanted to go there, so they want that as part of his schedule on Monday. How nice! Well, I'm going to go whoop Kaid in some Othello now. Jon and Drake are probably in the pool at the hotel just missing Kaid and I!

The sticker charts in the photo above are used when the kids complete a procedure. When they fill them up (10 stickers) they get a prize out of the prize closet. Kaid got to go there today after getting the ph-probe put in. He got a hand held electronic game. They were told to choose a movie they liked, and that is the picture they put on top. Kaid chose Kung fu Panda, and Drake chose Rocky (one of the doctors said they used his body and Rocky's face!). This has been really fun for the kids, and a great reminder for us all. Those stickers and prizes didn't cost much, and were most likely donated - and they made a big difference in our lives. It's not the big things that matter. Someone gave a cheap game probably from a dollar store, not realizing the impact it would make in my son's day. Who knows, maybe they had been in our shoes. Either way, we appreciate our unknown gift giver - they took Kaid's mind off of his problems, if only for a moment. It makes me want to cry just thinking about it!