There was a point in my life that I absolutely hated going to the hospital and doctor’s offices. The really bright lights, everyone in scrubs, furniture that was extremely uncomfortable and the sterile smell of all the cleaning chemicals.

I still don’t look forward to parking in the parking lot of the hospitals and the cleaning chemicals still smell but, it is what it is. Here we are again for our next CF Appointment with Dr Pete and the team.

The agenda for this appointment is review how everything is going over all. This time we are on a very short timeline to meet with everyone as we have to get to school for his school supply drop off. The meetings I feel are even quicker than they normally are.

Maddox rocked his breathing tests by getting the trick of how to handle the machine. He is finally over 40lbs! No blood tests this time as Dr Laura was able to review and order the same panels that he needed for his Trikafta check up. The team talked about how the summer was going and if we had any concerns which we really didn’t.

Dr Pete walks in and he does an evaluation of Maddox; ears, eyes, nose throat, heart and lungs. Everything checks out. We then dive into the blood tests results, which Laura and I had a chance to discuss before this appointment as well. Growth hormone levels, thyroid levels and red/white blood cells all looked good. His A1C was slightly elevated, Dr Laura mentioned to have a 6 month follow up with her so we don’t lose track of conversations with her. Dr Pete on the other hand really wasn’t concern of the slight elevation compared to the rest of his CF kiddos. He mentioned to us that we’ll keep an eye on it and that the Trikafta will keep the levels where they are or if not better in the future as he continues to grow up. As far as Dr Pete, he has no concerns from his blood draws.

We then jumped into discussion from the hand xray. The radiologist’s review stated, a 6 year 11 month boy presented an xray of his right hand and it is equivalent to that of a 6 year old boy. Constitutional Growth Delay is what Dr Pete called it. Maddox is just a slower grower than his peers. When looking at all his physical measurements to those of a boy 11 months behind him, he matches better to the growth curves.

Dr Pete, Nick and I then started the conversations that he’ll hit a growth spurt when he hits it and that he’ll always be the little dude among his peers. So, if Maddox continues to follow sports (karate, football, basketball, hockey, etc.) he will always be the littlest which then means he needs to know how to run the plays better, be smarter and quicker. Dr Pete didn’t have any concerns with this either and that we’ll continue to monitor everything as he continues to grow and hopefully he will have a huge growth spurt – someday. Until then, we are trying to hide as many calories in Maddox’s meals/snacks and keeping him full as much as we can as he burns off energy more than we can supply.

It was a successful visit and the team had us out the door in plenty of time to drive to his school to drop off school supplies, meet his teachers and then off to karate that night for belt graduation.