"My journey as a mother of a child with a rare disease began when I had my 20-week ultrasound while pregnant with my son Alex", shares mom Paula.
Paula shared their story beautifully in a detailed blog on the "Extra Lucky Moms" blog. Check it out!
Below, with Paula's permission, we are sharing some short excerpts.
"When Alex was five months old, he caught a cold. I watched as his little chest keep rising and falling. Then I could see his ribs and collar bone as he tried to suck in air. Something was wrong. His breathing was extremely labored. I rushed him to the emergency room. They immediately took him to a triage room. While they were examining him, I watched as my baby stopped breathing completely. It felt like time stopped, and it may have only lasted about 20 seconds in reality, but it was enough time for his entire body to turn this awful dark purple color. From head to toe, he was the color of an eggplant. I remember looking at the nurse and finally saying “Do something, he’s not breathing!”
"After Alex’s ankle surgery [for a serious infection], one of the doctors recommended we see a genetic specialist. She was the first doctor to look at his entire medical history and suggest that there might be something that ties all of his seemingly random medical events together. So, we made an appointment with another specialist and more tests were done. Alex kept getting sick, coming down with colds, having labored breathing, and having to go to the emergency room. We were at the emergency room or at a doctor’s office almost every two to four weeks. We were hoping for some answers.
While we waited for his genetic test results to come back in, our pediatrician noticed that Alex was flapping his hands a lot at one of his appointments. He would also occasionally walk on his toes. She started to ask me questions about his speech and his vocabulary. I shared this his vocabulary was limited but I attributed that to all the time he has been spending in the hospital. Then she hit me with something I was not expecting. She recommended we see a behavioral pediatrician to have him evaluated for Autism Spectrum Disorder. He did so many things well that once again, I naively believed that this would simply be an evaluation to check this off the list and rule it out. So, another appointment with another specialist was made.
Then came the two weeks in October of 2020 that I will never forget. First, I received the call from the genetics office. They had Alex’s test results in and confirmed that he had a very rare genetic disorder called Shwachman Diamond Syndrome. All the person from the genetics office could tell me about it was that it is a bone marrow disorder and that I needed to make a follow up appointment with the hematology and oncology team at the children’s hospital. I had so many questions but she could not answer any of them because it was not her specialty. Her job on that call was just to deliver the diagnosis, not provide any answers. So like anyone would do, I went to the internet. And this is when my heart broke again. Shwachman Diamond Syndrome is a bone marrow disease that impacts every single system of the body."
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