Monday, March 8, 2010

When Tune-Ups Don't "Fit"

Today at lunch Ronnie and I were just discussing the busy couple of months we have coming up in our lives. My brother, Josh, is getting married, Ronnie goes out of town to speak at an event in Albany, Ronnie needs to get in for a tune up, we have wedding prep, our wedding, and our honeymoon. We had tentatively thought through timing of it all, but we hadn't talked about it all since Ronnie's trip to Albany was scheduled. As we started chatting, we began to realize it was going to be a TIGHT squeeze to get Ronnie's tune up in. Josh's wedding is March 28th, and he is standing in it, so he can't go in until after their wedding. Then, Albany is April 16-17th, which means he can't go between Josh's wedding and Albany, because that's only 2 weeks. We get married May 22, which means if he goes in after he gets back from Albany, and stays 26 days (4 days under his typical stay). That would get Ronnie out 1 week before the wedding, just enough time to help with last minute plans and moving all of our stuff into his condo or into a new house (details on the house hunt possibly next week). Talk about a TIGHT squeeze. If anything goes slightly wrong while he's in, it could get interesting for the wedding day. But, we need to do it that way. The hospital stay needs to happen, so we're going to make it happen, and trust that everything will go smoothly.

All this to say, we truly believe that hospital stays are IMPORTANT. It is CRUCIAL to be proactive and not reactive when it comes to taking care of CF. Could we push off the stay? Yes. Could that result is him getting sick and causing irreversible damage? Yes. Is it worth that? NO. A little frustration and a little uneasiness about timing and scheduling is well worth preventing potential, long term damage. I would love Ronnie to be around the month before the wedding to help with last minute planning, errands, moving, etc. I will be forced to do a lot more work, and potentially all of the work, but one month of more work on my end and missing my fiance is well worth maintaining his good health and lung function. So I'll take it. Ronnie is being proactive and not waiting until he's really sick to go in, so it's likely that his stay will be nice and quick, and he'll be out and feeling awesome for the wedding and honeymoon. So we're going to work really hard this next month so he goes in as healthy as possible.