Some of you may know our story, some of you may not. So here it is again for those that don't:
This is my son Zach. When he was born we thought he was a healthy boy, we had no idea how sick he was. When he was 3 weeks old he had RSV, once he contracted that he went from being a seemingly healthy infant to a nightmare of sickness. Over the next 6 months we visited the ER just about every week with respiratory problems. They kept telling us he was allergic to this that and the other. Once we finally got him over all the breathing issues we found we had issues with failure to thrive. Zach was not digesting any of his food, so in return he was a 12 pound 1 year old! We once again went through a list of he's allergic to this that and the other for foods. He remained a very sickly, miserable, malnurished toddler. We tried everything under the son to get him healthy and none of it ever worked. Just before he turned 2 he had what is called a rectal prolapse (where part of the intestines protrude from the anus...very gross....very scary) we rushed him to the ER where the ER doc said to us "oh he has cystic fibrosis right?" Now I had been asking since he was 6 months old to have the test done to see if that was what the problem was but had been denied because "we didn't have a family history of CF". So I tell the ER doc "I don't know you tell us they have refused to test him". Thanks to this ER doc Zach was tested almost 2 months later, 2/19/2003. It is a day I will never forget because it is a day that changed our life. It took less than 2 hours to get a phone call from the CF clinic telling us that Zach did indeed have Cystic Fibrosis. It took us 6 more years to get Zach up to a healthy weight. It took 4 years to get him to a healthy point where he wasn't constantly battling off a respiratory infection of one type or another.
Since his diagnosis he has been fairly healthy. He had a period of 1 1/2 years where he was very sick. In that time he was hospitalized 3 times for IV antibiotic therapy, while battling psuedomona's infections (psuedomona's is a very bad infection in CF patients) We are currently battling MRSA infections in his lungs on a regular basis and are once again battling the weight issues. Every day is a constant up hill battle to just keep him healthy. He takes 15 medications a day and does 40 minutes of chest therapy a day. ALL JUST TO STAY HEALTHY!
We hope and pray everyday that they will find a cure for this disease. We are so close to it! Unfortunalty all the promising medications they are coming up with are gene specific, which means they only work for people with certian gene mutations (and there are over a 1,000 different mutations for CF), and so far none of them will work for Zach's mutations. It cost millions of dollars to try to find the right combination of things that can fix the problem in CFers (a faulty sodium-chloride channel in the cells) The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation works so hard for our kids to help find a cure and to provide assistance to those families who can't afford the are their kids need. That is why we walk with Great Strides every year to help raise much needed funds.
This is our team from last year. We are
Zach's Sidekicksbecause we are kicking CF to the curb! If you would like to help us reach our goal this year of $3,000 than please follow the link below. If you would like to join our team you can also do that below. Every $1 we get is important to finding a cure. So, please, even if you can only give $1 it would be so appreciated.
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