Tuesday, July 11, 2006

IgG Is Okay

Parker had his regular trip to the hospital today. He gave blood as well as had his ADAGEN injection. For those of you that are new, ADAGEN is the brand name for PEG-ADA that he receives .

We were hoping that the blood test would reveal that Parker would not have to get an IV to replenish his immunoglobulin Gamma (IgG). We got a call this afternoon, like we do every Tuesday, and we were informed that his IgG level was pretty much unchanged and would not have to get an infusion of IgG. We were very happy to hear that, but at the same time we were pretty much expecting that it was not going to be much lower than last week.

The rest of Parker's numbers are relatively unchanged. His polys (neutrophils) are a little lower than last week, but still in the normal range. We don't want to see it go any lower than it is, as the last thing we want is Parker becoming neutropenic again. Parker's lymphocytes are also not as high as we would like to see them. We are still waiting for his T and B cell production to increase. Once his T-cells increase they will help his B-cells produce IgG.

Parker gave some extra blood to check the number of T-cells that are coming through the thymus gland. It is called a TREC test. Remember that a T-cell is called a T-cell because it is matured in the thymus gland. I don't feel like doing a whole article on TREC but if you would like an excellent source on it, here is the one I used to learn about it.

I video taped Parker making the gasping noise and had the clinic nurse from immunology watch it today. She did not feel it was anything to worry about. My sister-in-law called me today after she read yesterdays article to tell me her son does something very similar. So, I guess I will not worry so much. But, that does not mean I have to like the sounds.

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