The Update

So we went to the specialist yesterday. He looked over all of the previous tests that had been done, and examined TJ. He feels confident that TJ has the Sickle Cell Trait, not the disease but to be sure has ordered some more detailed tests to determine the extent of Sickle Cell as well as determine if he has any additional "defects" (lol). The reason he feels this way, is because TJ has never had any previous issues and he (the Dr) has great knowledge of Sickle Cell studies done with altitude and dehydration (which he believes was the cause behind TJ's "crisis"). The Sickle Cell "crisis" TJ had in the mountains did appear to cause what they call spleenic infarction, which is when a small piece of the spleen dies off from the sickle cells blocking blood flow to the spleen but the Dr said that is a common occurrence during "crisis" and that is not something we need to be concerned with. It only becomes an issue when it continues to happen, then they would remove the spleen altogether. However, the pain TJ is having is because of this and the Dr advised this may take a few weeks to return to normal. The blood work TJ did yesterday will take a couple of week to get the results, then we will be able to say exactly what we are looking at but we are all feeling really good about everything at this point. The difference between having Sickle Cell Trait and Sickle Cell Disease is huge. It means not having to make any drastic lifestyle/environment changes, and our love will continue to be with us for a very long time.

I want to thank everyone here for their support. It's so nice to know that so many people care about our family and please know, I feel the same about yours!