Scare of a lifetime

On Thursday, Feb 6th, Dr. Carewe called and left a message on my phone. A message that I had to listen to several times before I fully understood what he was saying. His message in a nutshell was that one of the tests in the Newborn Screen (PKU) had come back in the positive range and that he needed to see Rylie the next morning. Ian and I tried to keep a strong face about us, but that evening when I was feeding Rylie Ian found me crying. My perfect little girl, my angel, my miracle, something was wrong with her and it wasn't something that I could fix. We researched what the PKU tested for, none of which were illnesses that we would have wished on our enemies let alone our daughter... I only recognized a few of the illnesses.

That night we hardly slept with anxiety. I kept hearing Dr. Carewe's message in my head, " I don't mean to worry you..." Well DUH! The doctor calling at 4:55 out of the blue and starting a message that way of course worried me!!!

The next morning, we loaded Rylie up and took her to the doctor. Her first doctor visit at a week old... her first outing too... He told us that the carnitine transporter screening was a little low, therefore out of the normal range. We were going to have to take Rylie to Children's Hospital in Aurora for more bloodwork. The nurse from the hospital called while we waited for Dr. Carewe to return from consulting with the Pediatricians on the floor. The nurse reassured me that it isn't uncommon for false positives on the PKU and that it was likely due to my not eating for over 24 hours causing MY carnitine level to be low when I had her. At least that made me feel a little better, but not much... I still couldn't potentially fix my baby!

For a week we waited... we prayed... we tried to be strong... finally on Valentine's Day the hospital called to tell us that they had the results back... and her levels were all in the normal range!!! Wahoo!!! There wasn't anything to worry about!!!!