leapoffaith
New member
My son (now 3 1/2) has had chronic asthma since he was about 10 months old. Around that time, his doctor had a sweat test performed and it came back negative. Starting in October of last year, my son's asthma flared and ever since then, he's had five hospitalizations for severe asthma exacerbations, along with chronic sinus issues (a sinus infection that never goes away despite constant nasal washes, oral antibiotics, IV antibiotics, etc.). He has had RSV 2x a winter since birth and has had pneumonia several times. He also has mild reflux.
Because we've been dealing with so much in terms of his asthma/sinuses since October, our pediatrician recommended having the full panel CF DNA test done "just to rule it out for sure." Blood was drawn at our local hospital for that test on April 24.
Today, I called our pediatrician's office to check on some things and since I had the nurse on the phone, I asked if the CF test results had come back yet. She hesitated but told me that the "final report" had not come in yet, but they had some preliminary data (received on May 11th) and they'd let us know upon receipt of the "final report." I asked if this was standard procedure and if it always took this long, and the more I pryed, the more hesitant the nurse was to answer.
It finally came out that the pediatrician did not "like the looks of" the first "numbers" that came back and I was told that she requested that the blood be sampled at 1-2 other labs just for the sake of "comparing numbers."
I know nothing about CF and from what I've read online, so many of the symptoms are not typical for my son, although he has a few things that may be. I'm trying to remain as calm as possible until we know something.
I have a few questions:
1. Is this normally how the DNA testing process works? What could the nurse mean that they wanted to "compare numbers?"
2. I was under the impression that each parent must carry a defective CF gene in order for a child to have CF. I remember being tested when I was pregnant with my son for the CF gene (it was fairly new in 2003) and I'm pretty sure I was not a carrier. I brought this up to our pediatrician and she said that those tests are not totally conclusive and it's still possible for my son to have CF.
Thanks, in advance, for your thoughts.
Becky
Because we've been dealing with so much in terms of his asthma/sinuses since October, our pediatrician recommended having the full panel CF DNA test done "just to rule it out for sure." Blood was drawn at our local hospital for that test on April 24.
Today, I called our pediatrician's office to check on some things and since I had the nurse on the phone, I asked if the CF test results had come back yet. She hesitated but told me that the "final report" had not come in yet, but they had some preliminary data (received on May 11th) and they'd let us know upon receipt of the "final report." I asked if this was standard procedure and if it always took this long, and the more I pryed, the more hesitant the nurse was to answer.
It finally came out that the pediatrician did not "like the looks of" the first "numbers" that came back and I was told that she requested that the blood be sampled at 1-2 other labs just for the sake of "comparing numbers."
I know nothing about CF and from what I've read online, so many of the symptoms are not typical for my son, although he has a few things that may be. I'm trying to remain as calm as possible until we know something.
I have a few questions:
1. Is this normally how the DNA testing process works? What could the nurse mean that they wanted to "compare numbers?"
2. I was under the impression that each parent must carry a defective CF gene in order for a child to have CF. I remember being tested when I was pregnant with my son for the CF gene (it was fairly new in 2003) and I'm pretty sure I was not a carrier. I brought this up to our pediatrician and she said that those tests are not totally conclusive and it's still possible for my son to have CF.
Thanks, in advance, for your thoughts.
Becky