4 years ago I never ever thought we would have to deal with Immunity issues...
We've been through a couple specialist appts in the last couple weeks, along with more blood work, and some more news. I haven't updated many because I needed time to get my thoughts in order and come to terms with it.
Wesley's antibody counts (the 4 other sets) are all in the normal range for his age. His IGG is a little low (remember, this is the "big one", which means his vaccines don't work properly) but nothing scary low. His IGA IS low, like we were told awhile back, but it's not -extremely- low.
At the Immunologist Wesley did blood work for all environmental allergies. We needed to see if he has allergies or if he shows symptoms of IGA. Some kids will never have any symptoms and they'll never know they are IGA deficient. Other kids WILL show symptoms. Wesley is one that shows symptoms. We needed to test for allergies to confirm or deny that. He has no environmental allergies.. Meaning anytime he has a runny nose/stuffy/or just generally not feeling well, it's not allergies. It's a cold or virus he cannot fight. Now, this doesn't always mean he is very sick... What affects him may not affect other children (because they have normal immune systems)
We also found out he has decreased immunity (despite being fully vaccinated) to Pneumovax and Tetanus. Pneumovax is the most serious.. That vaccine protects you against Pneumonia and Meningitis. Meaning, especially during the winter, we will need to be more careful and more aware to properly treat any sort of respiratory illness he may get so that it doesn't turn to pneumonia. He is scheduled to get a different dose of Pneumovax next week and in a month we will do more blood work to see if his immune system has come up to normal. If so, we're great. If not, well, I've been told we will "take that as it comes" Tetanus is only an issue should he get a bad cut and in that case we would go to the Dr and he'd get a booster and he'd be okay. These aren't the best results we could have gotten but both are treatable and he poses no risk to any other kids.
Please realize this immune issue has NOTHING to do with the vaccines he got as a baby and will continue to get. This is an issue with his immunity and how he was born. Vaccines WORK. I have 2 fully vaccinated older children... Our Wes has just a different physiologic make up.
So.. What can we do? Well... He won't be living in a bubble. He needs exposure. He needs to be around others. He will continue school as normal. He'll continue life as normal. Our home life has just changed a bit. Lysol spray is my best friend. We sanitize our hands often, especially before eating. We are giving him vitamins (his "fizzy drink") and we're living our life. All continues. If he should get sick I feel completely and totally prepared to handle anything that comes. We will continue to get yearly Flu vaccines and stay current on everyone's vaccines. We have an amazing Dr. who trusts me as a mom and listens to me and we have amazing specialists who give us advice. The most I have to do is alert new Drs. about his IGA deficiency as they will be treating him differently. He recently had a sinus infection, normally, with the girls, I would have let it run it's course and wouldn't have given antibiotics but Wes was given antibiotics and was better in 2 days. I guess you can say the last 4 years learning how to be an advocate for him has prepared me for this.
I've found essential oils that do not cause him to have an asthmatic reactions so we have begun using those to help keep him healthy.
Next we saw a Gastrologist. He was previously tested for Celiac but we found out that since he has IGA that test could be false, as IGA throws off all labs. We are going going with a less invasive course of treatment for a month to see if his symptoms improve and if not he will need to have a scope done to test the lining of his gastrointestinal tract to test for Celiac, as that is the only way to test properly for Celiac in people with IGA.
So that's where we are at now..at least for a month.
