It's the end of Winter break for Matthew. Back to school for him tomorrow. It was a low key break we didn't do a whole lot as the weather wasn't the best. We did go see the Ice Castle in Saranac Lake and then did some shopping in Lake Placid. The theme for this year's Castle was Celtic.
Matthew gave us quite a scare on Thursday as he snuck a Reeses Peanut Butter heart from one of his brother's room. Matthew has a nut allergy (not necessarily Peanut Butter) and he told us right away what happened because he was having trouble swallowing and his stomach was hurting. At no time did he have any swelling, hives or trouble breathing so we didn't have to use his Epi-Pen. We gave him Benadryl and syringed the candy from his stomach (Gtube really came in handy there). Terry brought him to the Emergency Room as a precaution. He was checked out and everything was ok. Terry was told that since we reacted so quickly that we probably avoided a more serious reaction. We had to watch him closely for the next few hours just to be on the safe side. It was a close call but he is fine.
Matthew was able to go outside twice and play in the snow for the first time this winter. It's been too cold for him, many days we've had negative temperatures as our high temps for the day. He built a snowman complete with Gtube and an ostomy (his ideas but my muscles lol) . He named him Super Snowman Sam. Even though he was outside for a short time and bundled up, Matthew didn't do well being outside. Both times , he came in shaky and dizzy. It took a lot out of him but he enjoyed playing in the snow.On the medical side we went to Boston and saw Matthew's Metabolic doctor on the 13th. Steven was also seen because of his issues that he had in the fall. Steven had some labs drawn and we should get the results sometime this week.
We saw a Fellow who is a Pediatric Neurologist who is training in Metabolism/Genetics with an interest in Mitochondrial Disorders.He examined Matthew first and then Matthew's doctor, Dr. B. came in. He was pleased with how Matthew was doing with his feeds and then we talked some about the testing we are waiting to come back and what to do next if the testing doesn't show anything. He has been trying to determine if there is a genetic cause for Matthew's condition.
We got an email from the NP that works with Dr. B that they may have found something in his bloodwork from 2010. Matthew has a deletion in one of his chromosomes, 3q29. What this means is part of this chromosome is missing. At the time they didn't think it was important because Terry has the same deletion(we were both tested). However, the Fellow found that there is a type of specific type of Mitochondrial Disease associated with this chromosome being defective called Optic Atrophy 1. Since Matthew has the known abnormality in this chromosome and has many of the symptoms this could, I'm stressing could, be the cause of his illness. There are two copies of each chromosome in your body. They need to test the second copy of the 3q29 chromosome to see if has any mutations or deletions. If it does then this is the likely cause of Matthew's Mitochondrial disease. That means Matthew was born with these abnormalities and didn't get it from an illness which can sometimes cause Mito disorders. If this is confirmed we were told that at this point it wouldn't change Matthew's treatment. However, this could lead to a new treatment or medicine.
