ZRT: Immunologist Update

This afternoon I finally received a call from the Immunologist (well, the Intern that works with the main guy). I talked with her for a while and she explained things pretty well to me. We do have a diagnosis for Ryder's immune issues which is nice, but it doesn't really change anything other than the doctor's have a better idea as to what to look for and how to help. They told me that Ryder has Transient Hypogammaglobulinemia. Looks and sounds like some really serious, but it generally isn't. This is found in about 1 out of every 10,000 live births.

They diagnosed Ryder with this by looking at his past and present blood work. His newest blood work shows that he did produce the correct amount of antibodies to his most recent Prevnar vaccine which is a good thing. The other blood work did show that Ryder has not produced the correct antibodies from ANY of his infant vaccines! (Well, he does have half the antibodies he should from the chicken pox vaccine) This is easily explained by his new diagnosis. The diagnosis basically means his immune system was too immature/not functioning correctly throughout his whole infancy. Since it was not functioning correctly his body did not respond to the vaccines as it should have which led to him not having the antibodies. It makes me feel so bad that we subjected him and his body to all of those vaccines for nothing. The good news is that since he did produce the Prevnar antibodies it shows his immune system is hopefully working now. The Immunologist explained that kids with this diagnosis do eventually start to respond to vaccines and produce the needed antibodies. She also explained that some of these kids do have issues with only keeping the antibodies in their bodies for short periods of time because they don't produce "memory cells" to keep around forever.

The plan for now is to get Ryder booster shots for HiB and MMR since those are the main vaccines he has no antibodies for. Then in 6 months we will get more blood work done to check on his antibody levels. Our hope is that at that point he will have to correct levels for all antibodies because that would show his immune system is working well. If his levels are low then we will move on from there. But in the meantime, I am just thinking positive and hoping these next two boosters help and his immune system is starting to kick in.

On a slightly different topic...Ryder's Sweat Test has been scheduled for September 13.

I hope at least a little bit of that makes sense to everyone. It is much easier to explain talking and not as easy with typing!

Today I let the boys play in the baby pool, but it was cut short by a bunch of bees. So when Ben got home from work we headed to his mom's house and went swimming.

Before the bees