We finally received the results of Kathryn's genetic tests! In case you missed the first half of season one, let's review. Most of Robyn's pregnancy was fine—even boring with hardly any symptoms—then one day they said she had stopped growing and wanted to induce labor because they didn't know what was wrong. A few days later they said "no, she's still growing so we aren't going to induce, but she has brain damage." Soon they decided to induce anyway, because they didn't know what was causing the brain damage and decided that she was, after all, a little small (though, they didn't know how small). Then they told us something was definitely wrong, but they didn't know what it was. A day or two later they were saying "wow, she looks normal" and didn't know how that could possibly be. Then it was a brain storage syndrome, but they didn't know which one, and then there was the time she had HCMV—although the brain damage caused by HCMV didn't typically look like this, so "this is confusing," and "we aren't sure what it means." Then she was totally fine, except for this brain storage syndrome that she may or may not have, and was sent home. The long-chain fatty acids looked okay though, and the first half of the tests came back clean so it probably wasn't a storage syndrome, but they still didn't know and said we needed to wait 7 – 21 days for the tests. Forty-two days later they didn't know what was taking so long with the tests and, by the way, the numbers from first half of testing all look good but the ratios are wrong. "What does that mean," I asked, and was told—you guessed it—"I'm not sure." That pretty much wraps up the first half of "As The Kathryn Grows" and I know a lot of you have been waiting for this—some of you rather impatiently, I might add—so without further adieu, let's open the envelope and see what new thing we don't know today!
The results of Kathryn's genetic tests came back CLEAN. God has answered our prayers, and there's no brain storage syndrome. She's expected to live a perfectly average amount of time. By the way I do know the average life span for a female in the United States is 80.8 years which estimates her death on December 8th, 2092. But let's not get morbid here, folks. So anyway, "what DID cause the brain damage", you ask. Well, Kathryn's MRI was taken to a conference of neurologists for show and tell. I suppose that's a normal thing for them to do, but if it's anything like the conferences I go to, they're mostly eating at the fanciest restaurants they can get reservations at and swapping neurology jokes. That reminds me, did you hear the one about the guy who needed a brain transplant? He was told the brain of a top-notch mathematician would cost him $10,000, and that of a world-renowned astro-physicist would run $20,000. If he wanted the brain of a politician, they said, he needed to fork over $40,000! He says to the doctor, "Why on earth does the brain of a politician cost so much more than those of people who are clearly much cleverer?"
Oh, right the MRI. I get distracted easily; sorry about that. Okay, so the neurologists at the conference decided that the HCMV was the likely cause of the damage shown on the MRI. If you remember, we were told that a viral infection in the brain would have calcifications that weren't symmetrical and evenly distributed like hers are, but the conference consensus was that it isn't so unlikely. According to ostispregnancy.org (PDF), "eighty-five to ninety percent of babies that are born with a CMV infection (congenital CMV) will not show any symptoms at birth. Most of these babies will not develop problems from the disease later on. However, 10 – 15% of babies with congenital CMV that do not show symptoms at birth will still develop some of the long term effects such as hearing loss and learning difficulties." So in six months we'll have her hearing tested again, and around two years of age, if she's falling behind in her development, we'll do another MRI. In the mean time, we'll continue to pray and wait. There's nothing the doctors can do at this point, except observe and test, but we've seen God do amazing things for Kathryn already and look forward to watching our little miracle grow up and develop into whoever she's going to be.
So what about that politician's brain? The punchline is… OH LOOK, shiney things!
Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I stole a baby?
The results of Kathryn's genetic tests came back CLEAN. God has answered our prayers, and there's no brain storage syndrome. She's expected to live a perfectly average amount of time. By the way I do know the average life span for a female in the United States is 80.8 years which estimates her death on December 8th, 2092. But let's not get morbid here, folks. So anyway, "what DID cause the brain damage", you ask. Well, Kathryn's MRI was taken to a conference of neurologists for show and tell. I suppose that's a normal thing for them to do, but if it's anything like the conferences I go to, they're mostly eating at the fanciest restaurants they can get reservations at and swapping neurology jokes. That reminds me, did you hear the one about the guy who needed a brain transplant? He was told the brain of a top-notch mathematician would cost him $10,000, and that of a world-renowned astro-physicist would run $20,000. If he wanted the brain of a politician, they said, he needed to fork over $40,000! He says to the doctor, "Why on earth does the brain of a politician cost so much more than those of people who are clearly much cleverer?"
Oh, right the MRI. I get distracted easily; sorry about that. Okay, so the neurologists at the conference decided that the HCMV was the likely cause of the damage shown on the MRI. If you remember, we were told that a viral infection in the brain would have calcifications that weren't symmetrical and evenly distributed like hers are, but the conference consensus was that it isn't so unlikely. According to ostispregnancy.org (PDF), "eighty-five to ninety percent of babies that are born with a CMV infection (congenital CMV) will not show any symptoms at birth. Most of these babies will not develop problems from the disease later on. However, 10 – 15% of babies with congenital CMV that do not show symptoms at birth will still develop some of the long term effects such as hearing loss and learning difficulties." So in six months we'll have her hearing tested again, and around two years of age, if she's falling behind in her development, we'll do another MRI. In the mean time, we'll continue to pray and wait. There's nothing the doctors can do at this point, except observe and test, but we've seen God do amazing things for Kathryn already and look forward to watching our little miracle grow up and develop into whoever she's going to be.
So what about that politician's brain? The punchline is… OH LOOK, shiney things!
Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I stole a baby?
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