The Poole Family: My Matty Boo

Wow. That little word pretty much sums up the past month and a half, and how much I am in awe of how Matt still manages to smile, be happy, and bounce back from everything! As stated in my previous post at the end of May, they believe Matt has Transient Hypogammaglobulinemia of Infancy. This means when the antibodies he received from me at birth faded away when he was around 6 months old, his little body did not make his own to fight against infections. You typically see multiple respiratory, sinus, and ear infections with this diagnosis and it usually resolves by the time they are 2 years old. His levels are already on the rise so hopefully the future will be filled with health! In the meantime... he still gets sick... A LOT. This past 4 weeks, we have been in and out of the doctor's offices (pulmonology, allergy/immunology, ENT, and Pediatrician) for either a checkup, lab work, a fever, antibiotics, etc... Last week, he ended up having a FULL day on Tuesday with blood work, urine testing (poor guy), an X-ray, speech therapy, ENT to schedule surgery, and last of all an antibiotic shot at the doctor. Thank GOD my sister was able to keep Emily and I had Stephen with me that day-- he was a lifesaver for my sanity! Matt's chest X-ray still doesn't look great despite two maintenance medications for asthma, but he is not persistently wheezing or coughing anymore. His white blood cell count however remains very high and has been persistently 20,000 almost the past month. A normal level is around 11,000 and below. This pretty much means his "infection fighting cells" have had to increase to try and help him fight off either one illness right after the other OR the same illness that won't go away. The past 2 weeks, we have been trying to figure out exactly what his little body may be infected with. This morning we had additional lab work done to see if his white cell count has decreased. Hopefully I will hear good news tomorrow! In the meantime, we are continuing to work with Speech therapy on our talking, eating, and drinking (we are officially off the bottle now!), and we have scheduled an adenoidectomy (remove his adenoids) in late July along with an "airway exam" where they will look at his entire airway with a small camera to see if he has anything out of the ordinary structurally. He remains on his prophylactic antibiotic, Singulair, Flovent, Prevacid, Zyrtec, and (as needed) abuterol on a daily basis. And we will be having his swallowing tested again this Monday. A lot of the nurses, doctors, and my friends have asked me how I keep a smile on my face despite everything he has to go through-- it is all because of Matt. He may be "sickly" but he is SO happy, strong willed, and so much fun. I hate watching him get a "big poke" as Emily calls it, but the second they are done holding him down (his least favorite part), he is happy and talking again. This little boy definitely has my heart, along with his sweet big sister Emi. Please continue to pray for him!!!

For more information on
Transient Hypogammaglobulinemia of Infancy
please visit
http://primaryimmune.org/about-primary-immunodeficiencies/specific-disease-types/transient-hypogammaglobulinemia-of-infancy/