Our 1st Hospital Stay & Brayden's Dedication

One of the hardest things about CF is the unknown.  An individuals prognosis falls on a spectrum: those with mild forms are very healthy, and only slightly impacted by the disease. In fact, you would probably not even know they had CF. Others are sick often, in and out of the hospital, and seem to have ongoing problems, these are the severe cases. Some fall somewhere between these two extremes.  The hard part is, there is no way to know where you will fall on the spectrum.  All we can do is do our part to keep Brayden healthy, keep his environment germ free, stay on top of his treatments, pray, and BELIEVE that he is well. 
In the beginning, it was so easy to get sucked in to reading all the stories online about the things that people with CF have gone through. The terrible hospital stays, the meds upon meds, the coughing, the near death experiences, on and on. It's all there, right at your fingertips. There came a point, however, after a couple of weeks of this for me, that I said enough is enough! It does me no good to read that stuff. To be aware that hard times may lie ahead, yes, but I want to focus on the positive. Brayden's future is in God's hands, and He will be walking with us every step of the way.

We feel fortunate that because CF is now being diagnosed through the newborn screening, we have been on top of Brayden's treatment virtually since he was born.  In addition, treatments are available now that weren't available 20, 10, even 5 years ago. Finally, a change is coming for those with Cystic Fibrosis. I want to focus my energy on fundraising for and encouraging the CF community, and I won't have the time or energy for that if I'm caught up in reading these stories.  (Plug Great Strides...sign up and walk with us or donate and support our team via the BZs Buddies tab!)

Unfortunately, our first trip to the hospital came far too soon for us. But, now we know what to expect should it happen again, and we are going to do everything we can to see that it's a long long time before we're back there!  Looking back, the hospitalization probably wasn't necessary, thankfully, but we're glad we had a better safe than sorry moment instead of a we should have taken care of that sooner moment.

Brayden had what turned out to be a sinus infection in mid-April.  He had a cough, runny nose, and low appetite for a couple of days that didn't seem to be getting better so we called the pediatrician, they saw him, and put him on an antibiotic.  I think he started the antibiotic Wednesday, and by Friday afternoon it still seemed like BZ was getting worse, so we called the CF clinic.  Given that the weekend was upon us, they decided to admit BZ to Parkview to rule out any RSV, bronchitis, pneumonia, etc.  Reluctantly, I packed our bags and Brayden and I headed to the hospital. Jeff had to head to work for the evening shift that weekend.

Happy even in the hospital...that's BZ!

We spent 2 nights in the hospital. They poked and prodded our poor buddy, gave him breathing treatments and CPT every 3-6 hours, and pumped him with antibiotics.  Thankfully, all tests came back negative, and it turned out to be just an aggressive sinus infection.  After 2 nights of little sleep and too many people poking and handling my baby, who turned 4 months while we were in the hospital, we headed home.

We went home late Sunday morning, the same Sunday that just so happened to be Brayden's baby dedication at church.  Given the circumstances, it was the perfect opportunity for us to reaffirm that Brayden belongs to God. He is a perfect, precious gift that God gave us to care for and teach His love to, and we will remember that day and that weekend fondly because it was such a great reminder of how thankful we are that God has chosen us to care for Brayden, to care for him and teach him all about God's love, mercy, and grace.


Here are a couple of pictures from the dedication, and the prayer that we prayed for Brayden on that blessed day.

We pray that Brayden will grow up to be a strong man of God. That he would be blessed with many
opportunities to experience Your love and share that love with others. We pray that he seeks Your
wisdom and turns to You for continuous guidance throughout his life. May he have comfort in knowing that You are always with him and care about him so much. Lord, give him a heart of compassion towards others and also instill in him a purpose to be a witness of Your gospel.
We pray that You would give us wisdom as parents to love and raise Brayden in a way that honors and pleases You, and that through our love for him, Brayden would come to know and accept Jesus as his Savior and Redeemer. AMEN!