It's been a long, long day, so this will be short but I know there are many of you who have been thinking about us and praying for us today, so I wanted to give you all at least a little update.
Brief-ish synopsis of visit with immunologist: Noah does indeed have an immune system deficiency, called "hypoimmunoglobulonemia-G of infancy". Basically, for unknown reasons, his immune system has not been producing enough IgG since the cells I gave him during pregnancy and a year of breastfeeding started dying off. Thus, the constant cycle of illness. Good news: he *may* outgrow this. Bad news: it is going to be exceedingly difficult to keep him healthy until he does or it may be a life long battle for him (not letting my head go there yet). Scary news: his body does not protect itself AT ALL specifically against the 11 strains of strep. A strep infection could be fatal. Hearing that was kinda like getting punched in the gut. Why strep and not other things? No clue. How do we keep him alive? He was given a brand new vaccine (I'll post the details on this another time) with all 11 strains in it (dead strains, since a live vaccine would literally kill him) and we now pray that it will rev his immune system into gear. We go back for repeat blood work in one month and see Dr. Wright again in 2 months.
Noah was also evaluated by an allergist today who summed it up by saying, "You definitely have an allergic kid here". Great, thanks. He's also concerned that he may not be hearing properly and that his speech is delayed. More issues to deal with another day.
I'll update again this weekend when we've had a bit more time to process all of this and my thoughts start to make sense again. Thank you all so much for praying for us and please, please, keep praying now more than ever.
good HEAVENS. I am speechless. I hope you are getting some sleep tonight. Thanks for the update. Praying hard.
ReplyDeleteJules, just saw this update. It sounds like at least you know more of what you are working with now ... this means that you and the doctors can start working on solutions (like the strep vaccine), and hopefully each new answer will lead to more answers. Thank God that Noah didn't get strep this winter!!! Praying for you guys and especially for him. Love you lots!!!
ReplyDeleteJulie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update. I'll be praying for you, John and Noah. This is a lot of process. Hang in there.