17 years old!

Ricky with my mom tonight.

So here is my yearly "OMG Ricky is another year older" post.  This year he is 17 years old.  I am not sure just how that happened, but there it is.  He is now about 130 lb and a solid 6 feet tall, having grown a half a foot (at least) this year.  Not bad for a kid with cystic fibrosis!

Every year I refer back to these posts from 1995 (read from the bottom, up) about Ricky's birth and the days preceding it and following it.  Those days seem farther and farther away with each year, and yet I find it so hard to forget them.

Healthwise, Ricky is doing pretty well.  His lung function is the best it has been in many years (!).  He is fairly compliant with his treatments and medications.  His attendance in school is not fabulous, but he's doing what he can and always goes to school cheerfully.  Ricky still sees a number of specialists on a regular basis, and that's not going to change.  Issues recently have included reflux, necessitating a change of medication, and increased chronic sinusitis issues.  He had a sinus CT scan last week and we'll find out in late December what the verdict is on that.

He is very much into computers and video games, including the website ROBLOX and his Nintendo 3DS (faithfully hanging in its bag from his shoulders almost all the time!).  If you give him the chance he will tell you enthusiastically about these things and a few other fascinating, in his opinion, subjects.  :)

Onward to 18!

Ricky's ENT visit

I just wrote about Ricky's visit in an email and it came out so well that I thought I'd copy it here rather than type it all over again!

We went to the ENT yesterday. I took a copy of the audiology report with me, and it's a good thing I did since they didn't have their copy handy.

Anyway, the resident did a few tests on Ricky, after hearing what the problem was. One was blowing air into Ricky's ears to see if that made him dizzy, and he then had him lay down and turn his head this way and that to see if that made him dizzy. None of that made him dizzy.

He and the attending ENT both think that it could be one of three things:

1. Migraines;
2. A heart arrhythmia of some kind; or
3. A problem from his CF that causes him to not have his blood oxygenated efficiently (doubtful because his CF is not that bad -- I think that's more of an endstage thing -- but who knows).

They also scoped his nose/sinuses because that is what he's usually seen by ENT for -- chronic sinusitis. No polyps in there.

They are deferring us to neuro (thankfully we finally got the authorization and have an appointment in April), and if the neuro exam is normal they suggest that the pediatrician refer us to a cardiologist, possibly to have him wear a Holter monitor for 24 hours or something along those lines.

I'm feeling a bit discouraged because I was hoping we'd get some answers. But I can wait til next month. Maybe the neurologist will have some answers for us.