31 days of may the cf way - day 6 clinic

Just thinking about clinic makes me nervous for days ahead (poor A cops a stressed out wife- warning A clinic is on monday)! I'm not sure why I get so stressed, I think perhaps it is all the people you have to see and all the questions they ask and the fact that CF is so unpredictable! So a typical clinic for us, means leaving home early. Generally I try to get somewone to keep J and Em, but this week they are coming along as we have to get to homeschool classes straight after!

Once we get there we see the receptionist and the questions begin. Then we wait in a waiting area and avoid sitting close to anyone else (due to the risk of cross infection people with cf are not meant to be closer then 1m apart). Then a nurse takes us to the scales and we weigh and measure El, which she usually screams for! Then we are taken to our own room, where we wait ...

...For the doctor, never the same one which drives me mad. The doctor asks lots of questions and listens to El's chest and pokes her tummy (both of which El screams through!). and then we wait...

...For the physio, who asks more question. And generally takes a cough swab (sticks a cotton bud kind of thing down Em's throat) (which she screams through -can't blame her for screaming for this one). And then we wait..

...for the dietician who checks her growth chart,asks what El eats in a typical day, and makes suggestions on what we could improve and then we wait....

... for the occupational therapist who asks lots of questions and offers support and ideas for giving/taking medications, and doing physio etc... Not someone we have needed to use a lot so far, but I think will become more important over the next few years.... and then we wait...

... for the social worker, who asks lots of questions and then we usually wait.....

.... to the nurse to check if we can leave!

Then we visit the receptionist to make a new appointment, generally in another 6-8 weeks!

That is a typical clinic visit at the moment. lots of screaming, lots of questions and a heap of waiting around. After clinic I am usually so exhausted that I go home and get nothing done for the rest of the day!