Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Diagnosis for Wyatt and a game plan.

Wyatt had his appointment this morning with a doctor in the Pediatric Infectious Disease department. He has been through all of Wyatt's history and asked me a bunch of questions. He examined Wyatt quickly and said he was sure he knew what was going on. The doctor said he is sure Wyatt has the fever disorder PFAPA just like we thought. It seems to be a pretty classic case. Basically Wyatt has a hyper immune system. For unknown reasons his immune system goes into over drive every 4-6 weeks attacking an infection that is not there. They don't know why this happens. It is genetic so there was nothing we could have done to prevent it. Thankfully it is easy to treat and Wyatt will out grow it some time between the age 5 - 10 years old. In the mean time we will treat each episode with a low dose of prednisone. The symptoms should disappear in 1-2 hours after receiving the medication. Which is a huge difference from the usual 4-5 DAYS we are used to. Sometimes the meds can cause attacks to come more often. If we get to a point where Wyatt is having an attack every 2-3 weeks instead of the usual 4-6 weeks then we will discuss removing his tonsils which cures it for 2/3 of patients. While the disorder is actually pretty common it is not common for more the one family member to have it. It happens but very rarely so Adelia should be fine. But at least we know what to look for and what to do if she starts exhibiting symptoms. The doctor said the child with PFAPA is usually the healthiest person in the family outside of these attacks. I believe that because Wyatt (like Bryan) almost never gets colds or the flu. While we were there Wyatt got his flu shot so that is taken care of too. I am so relieved to finally have a diagnosis, a prescription, a game plan and a light at the end of the tunnel.