A Quick Review of  2000

The year 2000 brought many changes to our life. Not only did we all get a year older but we were blessed with our second son Arran. We have also been presented with many challenges regarding his care and well being. He was born on April 5, 2000 at the University of Maryland Hospital in downtown Baltimore. We spent 5 weeks there while he was in the neonate intensive care unit (NICU).

Arran has Wolf-Hirschorn syndrome a genetic condition that has caused by a fluke event that was unforeseeable and unproventable. With this condition he has had several "side effects" or challenges like we call them that he has had to overcome.

His kidneys aren't working at 100% capacity but hs has somehow been able to overcome this deficiency with a little help from some medicine. He was born with club feet which have now been corrected thanks to a series of casts that were placed on the entire length of his legs. He has a small hole in the upper chambers in his heart that had everyone concerned with before he was born but seems to not be causing many problems currently. He has a condition known as Choanul Atresia which means that one side of his nose is blocked off. This prevented him from breathing regularly when he was first born and it was an obstacle that he had to overcome in order to suck on a bottle. He has done exceptionally well here and was taking a bottle before we left the NICU.

As you can see he has a long list of things that he has been able to overcome and we are always amazed at what he, with the help of God, can do. Unfortunalty our story does not end here. Arran still has some other issues that he must face. When he was born he weighed 5 lb. 11 oz. He currently weighs 6 lb. even and he is almost 9 months old. He has not gained hardly any weight at all. We have tried lots of things to promote weight gain and we will try more things. The doctors are at a loss about what to do and we are too. He is a happy baby and he is developing and learning new things but hs is such a tiny little boy.

So the new year begins and we are all faced with the problem of Arran's lack of weight gain and another scary issue looming on the horizon. We have discovered that many kids with Arran's syndrome develop seizures between 8-18 months of age. We are keeping a close eye on him for this development too. We want to thank all of you who have prayed for Arran or listened to us talk about how great he is. It has been a good year for us and we have all learned so much. Thank you for being a part of Arran's life in 2000. We will look forward to your support in 2001!!!

Click here for more information on Arran's Chromosome Condtion.