Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Poor response to vaccines

On Friday afternoon, we had our followup with the immunologist to discuss the results to Jayden's bloodwork. In Layman's terms, Jayden's immune system is compromised. Several values remained low and in one area, an entire group of bacteria that he should have built up a tolerance against from his vaccinations showed that he is EXTREMELY susceptible to them. The Dr explained that these results showed that Jayden did not respond well to the vaccine. We discussed more about what could happen if his immune system was left this way (recurrent pneumonia, RSV, strep, meningitis etc) and our alternatives. We decided to let him get the pneumovax vaccine. He will go to the lab in 4 weeks to have the blood tests done again to re evaluate his immune system. If the numbers are higher, then great! He'll just have to have his immune system checked once every 5 yrs and have the vaccine repeated if need be. However, if his numbers remain low, then we can confirm that his immune system is not responding properly and he will need immunotherapy. The good news is that his levels ARE PRESENT so no matter the result, we will have a solution and it's definitely not life threatening, thank you Lord. We are certainly hoping for a positive response to the pneumovax, but if not, I am glad to know that there are options for him!

2 comments:

Meghan said...

Poor Jayden. He just can't seem to catch a break.

Mommy said...

I know! But this may be the reason why he can't catch a break, so I'm hoping he responds well to the vaccine.