What a good month! and Open forum

Well not only is the little one doing good but I got a promotion at work today. We have now doubled our yearly income and have a little bit more stablity. What a relief!

[Kassimom]

YAY! Congrats!!!

[tresmathews]

Thanks but of course I get good news and bad news. DD's doc just called and said that she has an IgA defficeiny(sp?). What ever that means. He said if she ever has a blood transfusion they need to know that otherwise it could kill her. Scary. Now I wonder if I should have it checked out with me.

[hther]

Did you ask the doctor to explain to you what this IgA deficiency meant? Or have you looked it up? I ask because you did not know what it was yet knew the proper abbreviation. If you have looked it up then this information will probably already be known to you but here's an excerpt from a webpage I found addressing the receiving of blood for ppl w/ this condition. Hope it helps some.

There is another unusual, but important, form of allergy that can also occur in IgA deficiency.  In people whose blood contains no IgA, the IgA itself is recognised by the body as a foreign protein.  Since antibodies are normally made against foreign proteins, some people with Selective IgA Deficiency will make an IgG or IgE antibody against IgA.  In this situation, if an IgA deficient person who has antibodies against IgA receives a blood product which has IgA in it, a massive allergic reaction can result.  It is important, therefore, that any patient with Selective IgA Deficiency be aware of the potential risk in receiving blood products.

http://www.pidsnz.co.nz/news/1998/mayjun/igadef.htm

[tresmathews]

Thanks for the info. Got my mom to look some stuff in her books and I printed some things out. I am now armed with info and will be calling my regular ped on Monday for an appt and refferral to an Immunologist.

[hther]

Can this doctor who gave you the news also tell you whether it's a deficiency or a complete absence? That would be very helpful to know in terms of researching it, KWIM? I also read that some people with IgA deficiency will recover spontaneously and begin to produce IgA in larger quantities over a period of years so don't worry too much yet. Let us know what happens.

[tresmathews]

He said she had none at all so I am guessing abscence. I hope my regular ped can tell me more ofr give me a good referral to some one who can.

[Christie2004]

How on earth did they find this out?  Was she still having problems from that weird fever thing she had a while back?

I don't know anything about it, myself.  Good luck, and congrats on the promotion!

[tresmathews]

Yeah she has been having random days of 102 fevers and I was diagnosed with JRA at her age so they sent us to a Rheuma tologist(sp?) and he ran more tests and this is what we came up with. Hopefully I will egt some answers soon. Funny thing is all the things I have read so far sound just like the problems I have had as a child so I will proabbly get tested to be safe.