Category: Idan’s Blog

Idan's Blog

Update from Duke

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June 22: Thank you for your warm wishes for our trip to Duke, the first of many trips to hospitals around the country. The trip was well worth it as we learned a lot and we now have a good option for transplant (if we can figure out how to relocate to North Carolina for six months of course). Here is a brief summary of our Duke trip and why we have decided, among other things, to change our goal.Our first and perhaps harshest lesson is that, for a baby Idan’s age and with his disorder, a stem cell transplant poses a 10 to 15% chance of death. Why transplant at all then, you ask? Well, after speaking with Dr. Buckley who has been following many Hyper IgM patients from birth, some until their third and fourth decades of life, the risk of death increases exponentially as Idan gets older and is exposed to more potentially fatal opportunistic infections and most certainly malignant cancers. A 10-15% mortality rate for stem cell transplant begins to look pretty good all things considered, and has the potential to be curative. The key now is to determine how to reduce that risk to the greatest extent possible, and how to make sure that we do this once and we do it right.So, we have heard how Duke plans to reduce this risk. The risk comes from three sources: infections, adverse reaction to chemo, and graft versus host disease. Duke recommends using a lower dose of chemo, certain prophylactic medications, and bone marrow as opposed to peripheral blood or cord blood. Each of these steps will help to reduce the risk of mortality, and also increase the chance Idan will accept the transplant.

Importantly, Dr. Buckley, who has seen Hyper IgM patients for the past 40 years and has seen the entire spectrum of how these individuals were affected by the disorder, both for those who opted for transplant and those for whom transplant was not an option, recommends this: Do the transplant as soon as you can with the institution that has the most experience. Idan is the “picture of health” right now, and thus has the best chance of survival and CURE.

So we have only started our journey, but agree that we need to do this once and do it right. This means visiting all the experts and hearing how they plan on reducing the risk. If it were your child, wouldn’t you go to the end of the earth, too?

Now, for our goal. According to materials provided by Duke, the average cost for families across the country to undergo a transplant is approximately $650,000 for the first year. We hope this is a high estimate in our case, where we have insurance that will cover a large portion of the medical expenses of transplant. However, our insurance does not cover IVIG, a very costly treatment Idan will need frequently for the year during and post transplant. Because this is not covered, we will likely need to pay for private insurance, but we understand there is no guarantee we will be able to purchase insurance in such a short time frame that also covers IVIG and also does not charge us a very high premium because of Idan’s condition. Regardless, we have estimated our expenses to range from $250,000 to $350,000, which is why we’ve raised our goal. We have not included in our goal the other non-medical expenses such as the visits to doctors across the country, loss of income for six months or more, and relocating expenses.

We hope you will continue to share Idan’s story, email your contact lists, and post on your facebook pages and twitter so that we may meet our goal, and, more importantly, be connected with any other experts (be they doctors or researchers) that can help us reduce Idan’s risk so that we can do this once and do it right.

Love and best wishes to all,

Akiva, Amanda & Idan

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After a long drive down to Duke, a long day with doctors, and another long drive after, Idan gets his first beach visit for a few minutes before we head back to NYC. I think he liked it.

 

Idan's Blog

Getting ready for a trip to Duke

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photo (3)June 9th Update: dan update: We saw the pulmonologist last week and he believes Idan’s lungs are doing very well and should be strong enough for transplant. This is great news, and should allow us to move forward quickly once we choose a doctor/hospital. We are getting ready for a trip to Duke to visit one of the expert transplant doctors for Hyper IgM and other immune deficiencies. Wish us luck!

Fundraising update: With your help, we’ve raised almost $40,000 – nearly half of our goal – in only a few days! Idan’s story has been read by over 1,000 people, 261 generously donated, and hundreds more have shared Idan’s story through Facebook, email, and Twitter! Through your efforts, we’ve even been put in touch with another doctor who has performed a successful Hyper IgM transplant. Thank you so much!

Idan's Blog

Idan’s Story goes public on Facebook

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You all know our son Idan, and many of you have followed his adventures on Facebook. Idan now needs your help! Last month, after a 21 day stay in the ICU, Idan was diagnosed with Hyper IgM, a very rare life-threatening genetic disorder that plagues his immune system. We need your help, so he can live a full, long and healthy life: Please see here:https://www.youcaring.com/fundraiseforidan and feel free to Like, Share and pass along. More details and updates to follow. See here for original Facebook post.

Idan's Blog

Week 2 in the ICU – Update

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Happy to no longer have a tube down his throat
Hi all,

Thank you for all the warm wishes and prayers for Idan. We are now on day 15 of living in the ICU (AKA International Space Station). We are still taking all precautions, and are in Isolation wearing masks, gloves and gowns. Idan has been improving every day from the pneumonia. Yesterday afternoon they took the breathing tube out (extubated) and he now only gets a small amount of oxygen in his nose. This was a very big step after being intubated for 13 days. They have also started weaning him the narcotics, which has caused him to have some withdrawal symptoms and he has the shakes and some other symptoms of withdrawal (think Matthew Perry as Chandler in season 9 of Friends when he was addicted to pain killers), but they are doing a good job here adjusting the doses to help him deal. It was just another scary sleepless night during Amanda’s shift since idan was all wired and could not sleep.  On the plus side, since he no longer has the breathing tube, Amanda was able to climb into bed with Idan and hold him for the first time in 14 days (cue waterworks).

He is still getting feeding through his nose tube and still has a bunch of other IV’s. But there is a plan in the next 24-48 hours to get him to eat on his own with a bottle, and to maybe get some of the main IV lines out. 

Overall his spirits have much improved since being extubated (see pics from this morning below) and he is more playful. We are still waiting on many tests to determine the type and severity of his immunodeficiency.  As of now, we have mostly ruled out SCID, but there is a long list of other possibilities.  The best part about Idan being extubated for all three of us is that after 13 days we finally got to hold him again 🙂

I will update more with better news as things move along.  Please feel free to share this news with others that have been keeping tabs on Idan.

Thanks,

Akiva, Amanda & Idan

 

Idan's Blog

Email Update 1 – Day 4 of ICU

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Hey,

I know you love to get updates about crazy things going on in my life, and after what I pulled off 7 years ago, you probably assumes you heard that last of it. Sadly, this time it is Idan. Last Wednesday, we had to rush him to the ER because he was having a lot of trouble breathing on his own. Right from a doctor’s visit they took us in the ambulance to NYP Cornell. He had been sick for a couple of weeks, and breathing faster and faster. They assumed it was just a virus, but he was not getting enough oxygen on his ond his x-rays showed a lot of fluid in his lungs. In the ICU they stabilized his condition, but he is intubated and on breathing machines. That is when the episode of House began. Trying to figure out the cause of his lower respiratory infection has been tricky. At first, he tested positive only to the RihonoVirus (AKA Cold) but that was then ruled out. They took a lunch fluid sample. and were thinking they would find a rare lung disease that is causing blood in his lungs. But that was not the case. Instead they found Pneumocystis pneumonia which is usually only affects kids with an immunodeficiency disorder. So that is now what we are trying to figure out, what kind of rare immunodeficiency disorder he might have. The good news, is that they can treat his current Pneumocystis pneumonia with Antibiotics and steroids that they started last night. It will probably be at least 10 days of this treatment for his lungs for fully clear. Then the long -term battle will start once they are able to diagnose is immunodeficiency disorder, which may take some time.

Amanda and i have been living in the ICU since Wednesday, and it has been a challenging time. But are surrounded by close family who are making sure we get food and rest. Idanlooks comfortable on the machines and they keeps him sedated and asleep while they treat him. We hope his lungs start clearing soon, and they can extubate him and wake him up in a couple of days. It looks like we will be at Cornell for another 2 weeks at least. But there is really no way of knowing. Once we are out of the ICU and in a normal ward I think it will be easier for visitors to come, but for now we are limiting visitors to close family. If you plan to call, better to email first as I have my phone on loud for family, but don’t want to disturb Idan.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

 

Idan's Blog

Update Day 3 of the ICU – PCP

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Turn for the worst

Sat: 11AM

Hi all.

Going to give an update on how things are going in past 24 hours.

On Friday afternoon the doctors advised and we agreed that the best things to do is to run a Bronchoscopy to get a sample of the fluid in his lungs to reach a better diagnosis. To do this, Idan had to be Intubated. The test went well and so did the Intubation. So like his father before him he is now totally out and on a respirator and breathing tube. He is going to stay like this for a few days until they feel he is getting better and he can breath on his own again. Also, as we wait for all the labs to come back to know a better diagnosis, they are doing their best to keep him sedated. Right now they are trying to get a feeding tube down his nose so they can start giving him food into his colon.

As far as treatments: We are still waiting for diagnosis. If they do find red blood cells in the sample they took on Friday, it will probably indicate that he has some bleeding disorder in his lungs, and that might have been the cause (along with the cold virus that might have triggered it). They will then treat with Steroids and hope that it solves the problem in short run, with follow up visits with the Pulmonologist after we get out.

They did also find a bacteria in his lungs, which should not have been there. So last night they started him on antibiotics as well. They are doing many more labs on the samples they took and they are going to know more in the next couple of days, we hope.

As of now, there is not much more we can do for him besides wait by his side and hope he starts getting better soon.

You can call me on my cell if you want to chat more and I can pick up when I am not talking to a doctor/nurse.

Thanks for all,

12:51PM

We just got another update and they feel like that found a diagnosis. It seams that based on the test yesterday where they took a sample of the fluid in his lungs, he has a very rare Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP). This is not common in healthy babies, and usually only presents itself with babies with a immune deficiency. Since there is little to no chance that he has HIV (All mothers are tested when they go into labor in NY) and he has not had steroid treatments for cancer. it is a mystery that still needs to be solved. They are going to bring in the infectious disease team now to decide on the course of treatment. It looks like a combo of antibiotics and steroids work very well to get rid of the fungal infection. But they need to also figure out why he got this. Most of us have this fungus in our lungs, but our immune system keeps it in check. So more tests are going to be done in next few days to try to figure this out. Indeed a very crazy episode of House. They are trying hard to keep in sedated and comfortable while he is intubated. So that the treatment can work and get him better. And we will take this one step at a time.