Great News

Cam had his 9 month check up at the CF clinic today. We had been going to the clinic monthly for the first 6 months because he was considered nutritionally insufficient. They look at his height to weight ratio (kind of like a BMI) and calculate where he falls. They want him above 50% since people with CF tend to have better lung function with higher weights. At his last check up three months ago, he had crossed into the sufficient category so we didn't have to come back for three months. We're happy to report that Cam is still considered sufficient which is great news. He weighed slightly more today than last week at the pediatrician I think 19 lbs 1.25 ounces or something like that. We were worried he might slip backwards and not gain weight fast enough or something but all looks good.

The other big thing today was his sweat test. They had tried to give him a sweat test when he was about a week old and couldn't collect enough sweat to make it work. The sweat test measures the amount of salt in a CF patient's sweat. For years it has been the gold standard of how you tell someone has CF. Well, his test results came back negative. In other words, he tested the same as someone who doesn't have CF. This is great news. So what does this mean? To be clear, Camden does have CF. However, it is probably a more mild version. Ten years ago (or whenever) they would have said Cam does not have CF as the sweat test was the way to tell for sure. It is not totally accurate though. Cam has had genetic tests done though so we know he does have it, we even know which specific mutations he has. We suspected it might be negative as one of his mutations is generally a more mild one.

He lungs sounded great at the appointment and his oxygen level was 99% so we're hoping that stays like that. Who knows, maybe the digestion will be his only issue. Time will tell but we're pretty excited that the sweat test was negative because it is one more indication of his CF being mild.

~Kirk