I for some reason keep doing this. I am way too far behind on posts. I did have the blogger app installed on my phone and went and started some posts and then realized that on the app version you can't save the posts. Boo!
So where to begin...Allen is one month and 3 days old. I have no idea where the time goes. He's a little chunk munk now and I love his little chubby cheeks.
Now to back track. Allen wasn't even a week old and I got a call from our nurse practitioner that his newborn screening results came back and he tested abnormal on one of them. He tested abnormal on the cystic fibrosis test. I immediately went numb. She went on to tell me that we would go to have tests done and if I had any questions. I was in shock and didn't not know what to say. It almost seemed like I couldn't form words. We were referred to the children's hospital in Milwaukee. I called and made our appointment. As soon as I hung up the phone I started bawling. It was so hard to hear that my son who wasn't even a week old could potentially have something wrong with him. How was this possible? I look at him and he seems perfect...now also mind you this all happened on Adam's first day back to work. Talk about a whirlwind.
The following Tuesday we headed up to Milwaukee. Allen was to have a sweat test. Individuals with cystic fibrosis have more salt in their sweat than individuals who don't have it. The test started out with putting electrodes on his arms with a gel underneath to stimulate the skin to sweat. Now anyone that knows my child knows that he loves to move his arms and have his hands by his face. The nurse and I had to hold his arms down, so of course Allen screamed the whole five minutes he had to wear the electrodes. I almost started crying right then and there. Then sterilized gauze got put on his arms to collect the sweat. And the wait started. During our wait period a genetics specialist came and talked with us. She said that in Allen's newborn screen he did test abnormal and they looked at his blood work. They were able to find one mutated gene. This test could come out one of three ways. Positive which means he does have cystic fibrosis and he would get put on medicine immediately, negative which means he is just the carrier for it, or borderline which can be very frustrating. If it came back borderline they would take a blood sample and go and look through the blood work more in depth to see if they could find another mutated gene. They would also bring us back to take another sweat test. A person that has cystic fibrosis has two recessive mutated genes. Since Allen for sure has the one he is at least a carrier for it which means when he is older, gets married and decides to have babies of his own he has to be aware of if his wife is a carrier because their children will have the possibility of having it. So, 30 minutes later the gauze was taken off along with the tape and everything else. We dressed Allen and walked passed the lab to find out if he did sweat enough to run the tests. We found out that he did not sweat enough. My heart sunk. This meant that we would have to come back and retest. So I still have no answer to whether he has it or not. We were told to come back in a month and get retested since he would be bigger then. I have to call and make his appointment.
Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was a long holiday weekend for Allen and I and we were definitely happy to get back home. After about a day of being home Allen seemed to be getting sick. I took him to the doctor and he has a cold. So hard to see when your baby is so little and there's not much you can do for them. Hopefully he gets better soon. Of course I'm sick too! I think this is the first cold I have had in a very long time. I'm hoping it stays a cold and doesn't turn into something worse. I'm starting to get a bad cough and let's see where this goes.
I officially have a new job. It is at a local daycare in the area and Allen will be going to work with me. I'm so excited about this center and all the great things to come. I'm hoping to be starting December 10th which is right around the corner.
Next post to come will be about the lifesavers for us in the first month and any changes that have come.
