Preface: This is how we got here

Matthew was born on December 19, 2002 at 8:54pm and he looked perfect... He was perfect... As babies go, I suppose he was "normal", at least to us because we didn't know any different. Who knew that babies that were only a month old didn't take a six ounce bottle ever four hours and have a dirty diaper every time he needed to be changed. We didn't know any better, we just dealt with it. Thing started getting different when he started getting sick... A lot! He was constantly in and out of the doctors office with ear infection after ear infection and upper respiratory infection after another, we thought this was part of being a parent. It wasn't until he was bout six months old that something really seemed "wrong". Matthew laid on the floor of our apartment, fighting to draw each breath... Something each of us take for granted, the ability to draw breath to make your lungs function so that you can live... Have you ever watched you child struggle to breathe? Have you ever watched your babies lungs contract with the effort of trying to breathe?

Any parent who has a child with Cystic Fibrosis has done this. Any parent who has a child with Cystic Fibrosis knows what it is like to watch their child fight for life every day, and we didn't even know it. The first time we took him to the emergency room, he was so sick, they admitted him and we were in for several days with Pneumonia, or at least that's what they told us. No one took the time to look at the bigger picture of how often he was sick, how many times we were in and out of the doctors office, how we were back in with another infection before it was time for the follow up for the previous infection. His doctor never took the time to listen and hear a silent plea for help to "fix" their child. This cycle repeated itself every three or four months until we found Dr. Eduardo Hernandez. It happened that he was never on call when Matthew was in the hospital, it was the luck of the draw that we didn't meet Dr. H until May of 2004. Matthew was sick... AGAIN, and AGAIN, we were told, "he has bronchitis and asthma". This time, his normal pediatrician wasn't there, and this wasn't the first time this happened... Each time Matthew was hospitalized as a "direct admit" from his pediatrician's office, it was because she was not there, she was overseas helping other people, when she couldn't see a child who clearly needed her help in her own office.
Dr. H came into our room and looked at Matthew, he interacted with us, he asked us questions, he asked us things we had never been asked before... "What are his stools like?"... What did he mean?? Well it turns out, it's not normal for your toddler to poop out a carrot the way he swallows it. That is, unless he has Cystic Fibrosis and is not being treated. Dr Hernandez told us that day, "This is not asthma, I don't know what this is yet, but I will not let you leave here until I find out what it is." That type of dedication and determination for a patient you just met, is remarkable. We knew then, that this man would be a part of our lives forever...
This is just the beginning. I could keep going, but many of you who are reading this know the story. Dr. Hernandez told us that there were other doctors, ones that specialized in CF and could treat him, but we really liked Dr. H, so we stayed with him for as long as we felt we could. When we reached a point where we felt we needed another opinion of how to treat him, we went to Tulane, a certified Cystic Fibrosis Care Center. This, is a great place. They have great technology, they have great people, nice people... But, they just didn't have what Dr Hernandez has. His personal care for his patients is admirable, I don't know how he does it. With Dr H. comes a team of his own, nurses who treat you like family, let you cry, vent, complain during the LONG nights at the hospital. They become friends, they become a part of your family.