"Unremarkable"

I don’t think most parents long to hear those words about their child. But, today I was thrilled to get a call from our genetic counselor telling me that all of our test results are in. Finn’s results are perfectly “unremarkable” and therefore no genetic anomalies are the cause of his Hypertrophic Cardio Myopathy (HCM). Great news, right?

Well, it’s actually quite bittersweet. As wonderful as it is to hear that his genes aren’t contributing to his heart enlargement, it also means that we still don’t (and possibly never will) have any answers. Without a cause we can’t really treat him. Part of me is relieved to hear that he doesn’t have any other known issues. The other part is frustrated that we aren’t able to do anything to help him get better. 

I guess we have all of our eggs in the “it just gets better over time” basket now. We have to hope that over the next few months we start to see improvements and if we don’t then at least we hopefully won’t see additional deterioration. I am perfectly content with a son who will never receive a scholarship for football, basketball or hockey but rather become a casual golfer, mathlete or musician. Only time will tell at this point.

Today I also (finally) had my first postnatal check up with my midwives. I could see the tears in Ashley’s eyes as we recounted the last four weeks of our lives. Sometimes things happen for a reason and this is one of those things, I am sure of it. We were forced to change care late in my pregnancy for reasons out of our control and that put us in the hands of the most amazing midwives at Willow. I honestly don’t know how we would have survived everything from our eventful birth to now without them. How do you begin to thank someone for that sort of support? I just feel so lucky to have them in our lives. Ashley cradled Finn and looked so lovingly down at our healthy boy. It gave me chills to have them reunited as she hasn’t seen him since we left for the hospital 6 hours after he was born.

The rest of our life has been wonderfully normal. We’ve continued to go to classes at Blooma (adding in an infant massage class today) and started walking the indoor track at the Plymouth Field House. There is no sleep schedule yet so naps are sprinkled in (for me) whenever the stars align and the laundry isn’t piling up. Asher has continued to be the sweetest big brother always kissing, hugging and holding his “brudder.” He loves to tell me when Baby Finn is crying and insists on helping with baths, diapers and feedings.

We will be following up with both cardiology and genetics at the end of the month but I don’t anticipate anything exciting to report. I am fine with that. In the meantime we are going to keep living this perfectly unremarkable life.

February 9, 2017