Faith is asleep and I have been wandering on the computer, writing, researching, planning and thinking. But every now and then I stop for a moment, what do I think? I am thinking about how right now everything is peaceful, all I can hear, is the oxygen concentrator, it sounds like a space ship, an alien sound to the ears but to me it is the now, the normal, laugh if you will, but it is quiet and for a moment my brain just wanders through time soaking up its own thoughts. Compared to yesterday I feel relaxed and ready to take on the challenges that lie before me.Faith, my mum and I drove to Mullumbimby this morning, it is a 40minute trip and we drive along country roads and chat. It is a good chance to have good conversations with my mum and Faith talks every now and then but loves watching the trees go by but protests if we pass a truck or car that makes her feel threatened. Why do we make this trip, it is to see our nutritionist, the last time we saw her was in late August as she has been away. Our nutritionist is a blessing as she gives her time to us at a much reduced cost and researches areas she doesn't know about but we always seem to be on the same page, our minds seem to work in the same direction and it makes it so much easier. Faith is now on 100% blended diet but we are making to much volume in her blend so we are looking at ways to decrease it but still get the required amount of nutrition. It is so exciting to be at last on 100% blended diet. With summer already at our door step we discussed ways of keeping Faith hydrated, she is drinking water and we put water down her tube but she sweats so much with either pain, stressed, straining or just unwell. So we are thinking some electrolytes might be worth a dry. Apparently the kids version is full of not so good things so she gave me the details of a colleague who has a much more healthier version so we will see how that goes.
Last week in Brisbane we were discussing with the gastrointestinal doctor about probiotics and she suggested VSL#3. I looked up VSL#3 and this what I found out about it, it is a probiotic with the highest available concentration of beneficial live bacteria. Each sachet of VSL#3 contains 450 billion colony forming units (CFU) of live lactic acid bacteria which can effectively colonize the gastrointestinal tract. It sounds really good and we need to get Faith's tummy some more friendly bacteria but it is so expensive in comparison to the other varieties so I think we will have a bit more of think about it. One of our biggest concerns at the moment is keeping Faith UTI free and it is proving a challenge. The antibiotics are killing the infection but killing the good bacteria and then when she finishes the antibiotics the infection comes back so it is quite a vicious cycle. We thought we would try cranberry juice and so I looked for it in many shops and apparently at the moment there is a shortage of cranberry juice, something we really need and we are unable to get. I ordered some on the internet so hopefully that will work out.
I am so grateful that Faith is taking to drinking water so well, she is even trying to lift the cup to her mouth and looks at it when she wants more. She is tasting small amounts of carrot, pear and apricot purees on the cup and that is wonderful progression. I am so grateful to have people like our nutritionist and speech pathologist around to help us make Faith stronger! We have so many things to be thankful for.
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