How does he stay healthy?

So, I finally am using the new Beta Blogger. For those of you who are not savvy with computer lingo that means that I am using a version of Blogger to maintain this website. I still have every intention to switch to the new www.scidada.com domain in which I will write all the software for but until then I figured that I would give this new version of Blogger a test drive. It will at the very least give me ideas for when I create the new site.

I seem to be posting to the blog every couple of days instead of each day and I apologise for that. The reason is that I have set a schedule for myself for my studying as I want to write the SCWCD 1.4 Exam before I go to Italy. With that and wanting to spend as much time with Parker I sometimes am strapped for time. We also get the occasional visitor here and since I do all of the cooking and I want to make sure our visitors (even if they are only --not in a bad way -- our parents) always enjoy what they eat. So these are my excuses.

On the topic of visitors we did have a nice visit with my wife's aunt (Nanna's sister) and her husband this afternoon for lunch. They had heard so much about Parker and always stay abreast of what is going on through the blog that we thought it would be nice to have them over with Nanna and Granddad. I made quiche and a nice winter salad and everyone including Parker sat at the table for a nice lunch.

Now, I know that some of you may be wondering how we can have visitors with Parker and his condition. For that reason, I thought I would explain. Parker spends most of his time at home in an environment in which we control and refer to as severely germ restricted. Does that mean that Parker is in isolation at home? Absolutely not. What that means is that we make sure that any possibility of there being some form of fungus, bacteria or virus that Parker could come into contact with is minuscule. How do we do that? Obviously we keep a very clean home. You won't find us on a TLC show about dirty homes. Secondly, we make sure that we stay healthy. The best way to do this is to sanitize our hands regularly and to stay away from people that are or could be sick. That is why we refrain from being around children. Many children that go to school or are in daycare are around all kinds of germs and they do not necessarily clean their hands regularly to rid themselves of them. This is why my wife and I do not see our nephews very often. Lastly, and the most obvious one is that we do not let people into our home who have recently been sick, are sick, or have a sick person in their care or at home. Just because they are not currently displaying symptoms of being sick does not mean that they are not. Oh, and of course. If we must bring Parker somewhere like the hospital, not the mall, he is always under his shield. Why does Parker not wear the shield at the mall? Because he does not go to places where there are a lot of people- especially a mall!

What about us? Do we go to places like the grocery store and the mall? Well, of course. The difference is we are always on the look out for someone who is sick, we do not go to the mall or grocery store during the busy times (as it makes the former much more difficult) and we always carry at least one personalised sanitizer in our pocket to keep our hands clean after touching money, a shopping cart or anything else that could house germs. We do not live in isolation, nor does Parker. We are just extremely aware of our surroundings and realize that in order to live we need to do certain things.

So I hope that answers some people's questions about how we are able to interact with the rest of society and still refrain Parker from catching an infection. Remember; however, Parker is able to fight off infections at the moment if he did become sick. He is doing extremely well with the Enzyme Replacement Therapy. It is just not a long term solution. The goal is to keep Parker healthy and stimulated until we go to Italy for Parker's Gene Therapy Treatment.