Encouraged

Once again I am hopeful!

After the night we had, I decided that I would take Amelia to the doctor today. This time we just went to our regular old pediatrician because more and more I am convinced this is more of a sinus issue than a lung issue. We haven't seen him much lately for Amelia because we normally see the pulmonologist these days. I caught him up on everything that has been going on with Amelia. He decided that he wanted to see the CT scan and the blood work that they did up at All Children's Hospital to look for a few things himself. By all means, look! I mean, if there is anything you think we should try, I'll try it. We've kind of hit a dead end with the pulmonologist. He came in the room very excited about something he saw on the blood work.

This blood work was done months ago to look for deficiencies in her immune system. The pulmonologist said it all looked normal. So we ruled that out.

He immediately saw that her MBL level was very low, significantly below normal. Anything below 1000 would be considered low. Amelia's is 651. He explained to me that this is a protein your body makes that recognizes infection and gets your body in gear to fight it. He felt like this was without a doubt the reason that she is getting sick on such a predictable cycle. He said he has eight patients with this deficiency in his practice. (Not sure how he would know that number off the top of his head, but whatever.) Anyway, it's not that this is anything that can be fixed. But at least it is an explanation. Where do we go from here? First we have to get rid of the present sinus infection. Then we will go to an immunologist to discuss our options. He said most likely she will be on a low dose antibiotic every day for the whole winter. With luck, this could greatly reduce the severity of every little bug she catches. She will also get a flu shot and the Pneumovax to boost her immune system to prevent pneumonia. I am just happy to again have a possible solution for my sweet little girl.

Of course, I will keep you updated!