We finally had our long awaited appointment today with Dr. G. It was a VERY long appointment with lots of questions asked, lots of information given and lots of questions still unanswered.
We got to our appointment at 130 and was seen right away only to have the doctor leave again for an hour to review Connor's MRI and CT scans. Once he returned poor C had fallen asleep. It was perfect because we got all of the questions out of the way before Connor was examined.
From what we gathered, Connor's condition is so rare that he could not find one case that matched Connor's exactly. Instead what he did was researched those closest to him and compared that way. Now that he has seen Connor he will now research Connor's specific symptoms and right a report for us in the next few weeks with all the research he has found.
From our questions and his information this is what we found out today-
Connor's frontal brain is underdeveloped but Dr. G feels confident that he will compensate eventually. This might be why he is physically delayed. It has nothing to do with the sutures closing too early (all of these "issues" are all caused by his chromosomal deletion).
He no longer seems to feel Connor will need surgery on his skull. Connor's brain is almost done developing and it has never been a concern due to his premature closure of the sutures. He feels that they were probably closed upon birth. The ridge in his forehead should not grow anymore but, if we feel it is we will be referred immediately to a specialist.
His new concern seems to be the thumbs. We see an orthopedic doctor every few months but he wants to see a hand specialist and make sure he doesn't have something called Clasp Thumb Condition.
Connor will probably be in some sort of special education classes growing up but because we are already part of the Regional Center, he is already on the right track getting extra help to help in in his development.
There is a 50/50 chance that Connor will pass this onto his own children and even though our blood showed that we did not pass it onto Con, there is a chance that something went wrong in the "creation" of Connor that it could happen again so we have decided it would be best to have just one wonderful child.
We will be getting a kidney and abdomen ultrasound on C because in the other cases that were similar to him, there were some children with kidney problems. They will also be looking at his testicles as they have not dropped yet and seem underdeveloped.
He will also get an echo cardiogram to rule out heart conditions. His heart sounds wonderful but because other children have had heart problems we must make sure.
These will probably be yearly things for Connor growing up.
Dr. G will be looking up each problem Connor is facing in his database to make sure it is all correlated to the missing piece of Chromosome 21.
Even though 21 has moved and attached itself to Chromosome 12, he is not concerned at all with 12. He will also be doing more research to find out exactly what all 30 or so genes that Connor is missing do.
To help further his progress and hopefully help in out for when he is ready for school , we will be starting speech and occupational therapy in the near future.
We will be seeing Dr. G again in one year. But he will be in contact with us periodically as he gathers new information.
It was a great appointment. It is just hard to not really know exactly what will happen with his future but it is great to know that technology gets better and better with time.
7 comments:
That is so much information to absorb. I am crying. So glad you have (some) answers & a plan of action. What a wonderful little boy you have & how lucky Connor is to have such selfless parents.
I am so happy for all of you that you have some answers now. From reading this blog, it seems as though this Dr. is very caring and sees Connor as a little boy and not just a patient. That just warms my heart b/c sometimes, that isn't the case. I am confident with the two of you as Connor's parents, he will continue to grow and develop to the very best of his wonderful ability. He is so lucky to have you both--you are a true testament for what it means to be a devoted parent. Bless you Sarah. I am so glad to able to share in this journey with you :) <3
My original message got screwed up. In short, I am so happy for you that you were able to finally see the doctor. It sounds like you got a lot of good info on what to watch for and how to best help Connor. I hope the therapy and early intervention does wonders for him, it probably will. He is a lucky little boy to have such wonderful parents.
Sarah, that is such a great appointment. I wrote you back, but wanted to comment on here too. Connor is such a lucky little guy! I'm so glad you have met a wonderful doctor - he sounds like he is going to take great care of the 3 of you. *hugs*
I am so happy that you had such a great appointment! Connor is truley such a wonderful little boy. It sounds like you have the right doctor and are taking the right steps for Connor. Hugs!
I'm so glad you were finally able to get some answers. Sounds like a good doc. ((HUGS))
Hi -
I'm so glad that you were finally able to get some information. That's great about his sutures - I know that was weighing heavily on your mind.
Kim (Will's mom)
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