I took my son to the hospital to get his lungs checked out yesterday. This was the main worry we’ve had about his health for the past few years (we had to quit our jobs and get out of China quickly three years ago as it was life threatening). He’s been taking a steroid inhaler twice a day and antibiotics almost every time he gets sick (five times last year). We really want to reduce this and build up his natural immunity, particularly as it’s not good for his health to be taking so much strong medicine. We have brought the dosage down to 2/5 of what it was 6 months ago, and the doctors were very happy with his progress and said we could continue reducing it. He’s also gained 2.5kg since Christmas and can chew much better now his adult teeth are coming through (the steroid inhaler may be one of the reasons his baby teeth rotted away, and it’s not easy to clean a child’s teeth properly when half of them have exposed nerves). We’re coming to the end of a course of occupational therapy for him too, so we’re basically coming to the point where he needs minimal treatment and should be able to attend school as normal.
Also, a friend I mentioned in November whose boyfriend was diagnosed with late stage cancer last year is getting married next week. I don’t think the long term prognosis has changed at all, but they’ve had more time with him than they were expecting, and were able to go on holiday together earlier this year. Our neighbour who lost her husband and mother in February is doing OK so far - the neighbours are helping to fix up her house and garden (which had become quite overgrown while her husband was sick) and spending time with her. She gets on really well with our kids, so sometimes I’ll do some work in the garden while she invites them in to watch cartoons or play games with her.
