Shelley Jelderda
General
My son, Ethan has Cystic Fibrosis. He recently had a bronchoscopy. Ethanâs x-rays at the hospital on Sunday morning showed the pneumothorax had sufficiently healed so they removed the chest tube and he was discharged Sunday evening. So far the cultures they took during the bronchoscopy have not grown any dangerous bacteria, for which we are very grateful. That includes Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a fairly serious bacteria for individuals with Cystic Fibrosis, which he cultured back in July and is why he is still on a 2+ year course of strong antibiotics. Praise God that particular bacteria appears to be gone, or at least undetectable at the current time. His doctors still suspect the root cause of the extra mucus and plugging in his lower airways is ABPA (allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis), a fungul infection, so they are recommending a âpulse steroidâ treatment regimen that will require Ethan to have 3 sequential days of steroid infusions each month for the next several months, along with taking an anti-fungal medication. Should additional bacteria grow in the lung cultures over the next several weeks, other treatments may be necessary. Please pray that the final culture results show no serious bacteria and are accurate, that the ABPA treatments are effective, and that the pneumothorax heals completely. Ethan cannot participate in any even mildly-strenuous activities for the next 4 weeks due to the risk of recurrance. Weâre grateful he isnât missing any major sports activities but it will be difficult on him not being able to work out or play baseball with his travel team or play games with his friends. Obviously these are less serious concerns but for him all of this is depressing, so please pray for his spirits not to get too low. He is such a fighter and so tough but itâs hard to see him have to deal with all of this. We know, though, that these trials will make him stronger and allow him to minister to others in the future where his testimony and resillience can provide encouragment, and for that we praise our Savior.