Thursday, June 10, 2010
Breathing easier
The doctor called me yesterday and Hannah doesn't have VLCAD, but she is a carrier. It feels good to finally have the info. We felt like that was probably the case, but it is nice to know for sure. The funny part was the the doctor told me that the specific mutation that Hannah has is usually found in people of Japanese descent, and the lab wanted to know if we had any Japanese in our lineage. I was like, I've seen/done the geneology back fairly far and I don't remember seeing anyone who was Japanese at all. Weird, huh? Now I'm wondering if we should have the older two tested to see if they are carriers or not. The doc said that this has only been part of the tests for the past 5-6 years, so they weren't tested for it. Rachie was, and she's ok, but I guess it's something I will tell them about when they get married and they can decide to do genetic testing if they want to.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Ladybug has arrived!!
I know I am very late, but it's been a busy couple of weeks. Hannah Rose arrived on May 21st at 7:58am. She weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces (my tiniest) and was 20.5 inches long. She has a good amount of dark brown hair. She's such a good baby! Hardly ever cries, and is pretty tolerant of the love that she gets from her big brother and sisters. Especially the "rough" love she gets from Rachel. Poor baby! :)
I have been recovering fairly well. My experience in the hospital was amazing compared to any of the other times. The nurses and other staff at Legacy salmon Creek Hospital as wonderful! Steve and I were both really impressed, and I feel like that helped make a huge difference in the way I felt before, during and after the surgery. I would definitely recommend them to anyone who is considering delivering there. It was awesome!
Our one concern about her is that one of her screenings came back as abnormal from her PKU test. She has had additional bloodwork (it was awful!) done and the results will be back sometime this week. It is to see if she has VLCAD (very long-chain acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency). Basically, it's a metabolic disorder that won't allow her body to break down the fats in the foods she eats. As long as they catch it in time, it is controllable by diet, but it is fatal if it isn't taken care of properly. Her number was really low. The cutoff is .75 and she was at .78. The docs have told us that no one with a number that low has ever actually had the disorder, it was either a false positive or they are a carrier of the gene. She doesn't have any of the symptoms either, so we aren't super concerned. If she is a carrier, and she marries a carrier, their kids would have a 1 in 4 chance of having the disorder, so it's a good thing to find out at least. It is rare, 1 in 125, 000 people have it. Even though she is showing no symptoms, we have to treat her like she has it until we get the results back, just in case. So, I have to wake her up and feed her at least every three hours, night and day. That has been exhausting. The daytime isn't such a big deal, but she would sleep longer than three hours at a time at night if I didn't have to wake her. So, if you could send us some prayers for her health, we would appreciate it!
I will post some pics asap. The big kids are fighting downstairs, Rachel wants breakfast and I can hear Hannah squeaking. The day has officially begun!
I have been recovering fairly well. My experience in the hospital was amazing compared to any of the other times. The nurses and other staff at Legacy salmon Creek Hospital as wonderful! Steve and I were both really impressed, and I feel like that helped make a huge difference in the way I felt before, during and after the surgery. I would definitely recommend them to anyone who is considering delivering there. It was awesome!
Our one concern about her is that one of her screenings came back as abnormal from her PKU test. She has had additional bloodwork (it was awful!) done and the results will be back sometime this week. It is to see if she has VLCAD (very long-chain acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency). Basically, it's a metabolic disorder that won't allow her body to break down the fats in the foods she eats. As long as they catch it in time, it is controllable by diet, but it is fatal if it isn't taken care of properly. Her number was really low. The cutoff is .75 and she was at .78. The docs have told us that no one with a number that low has ever actually had the disorder, it was either a false positive or they are a carrier of the gene. She doesn't have any of the symptoms either, so we aren't super concerned. If she is a carrier, and she marries a carrier, their kids would have a 1 in 4 chance of having the disorder, so it's a good thing to find out at least. It is rare, 1 in 125, 000 people have it. Even though she is showing no symptoms, we have to treat her like she has it until we get the results back, just in case. So, I have to wake her up and feed her at least every three hours, night and day. That has been exhausting. The daytime isn't such a big deal, but she would sleep longer than three hours at a time at night if I didn't have to wake her. So, if you could send us some prayers for her health, we would appreciate it!
I will post some pics asap. The big kids are fighting downstairs, Rachel wants breakfast and I can hear Hannah squeaking. The day has officially begun!
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