Aubrin "Hemi" Update

When Aubrin was about 2 months, I was holding and playing with her and noticed that that her right arm was a tad bit bigger than the other. It looked almost swollen. I immediately took her in to the doctor and after some research, specialist, anguish and uncertainty they diagnosed her with Hemihypertrophy.

We all have some sort of asymmetry in our bodies, but hers is more pronounced. Basically, her one arm is larger than the other. With this though, comes the risk of childhood tumors. The most common is the Wilms Tumor. Ever since she was about 6 months of age (picture of her at about 7 months) she has had routine blood work done and abdominal ultrasounds. They look at her liver, kidneys, etc. She started out doing these every 3 months, but now she just has to endure them every 6 months. We go back to the geneticist every year and the reassess everything. At this point she will need to continue this process until she is 8 or 9. That is when the risk significantly lowers and they feel they do not need to do regular check ups on her. The last visit with the doctor down at Phoenix Children's, they told us that there was a slight possibility that she might have lymphodema but was unable to check for this because she was too young to do so. Apparently, they are still doing research on childhood lymphodema. So, they have kept with the original prognosis and we continue to get ultrasounds and blood work for precautionary reasons.

She just had her blood drawn Tuesday. She is so good, no tears whatsoever. She hops right up on the table for her ultrasounds too. I swear she is going to be a phlebotomist (person who draws blood) or an ultrasound tech when she grows up. I received the call today on her results. This was probably the first time my heart sank when I got one of the result calls. The nurse first told me that there was something a little bit off with them. She said her blood cell count was off, but the tumor markers were negative. She then told me that the doctor was not too concerned with it, that her immune system might not be where it should be with the seasonal viruses. Aubrin will go in for her ultrasound this upcoming Tuesday and they will determine if there is more to it, but they don't feel there is.

She was given this challenge in her life because her, of all people, I know can handle it. She has a special personality. I pray that as she gets older, that this never becomes an issue. I don't ever want her to feel self conscience or embarrassed by it. She is so great with it at this point. She refers to it as her "fat arm" and tells me that it doesn't feel any different than the other. I love my sweet Aubrin.