Update from our trip to Houston

Two weeks ago, we took a trip to Houston for a regular appointment with Dr. G, our uppers doctor. When planning for this trip, we had talked with Dr. Hall, who also wanted us to see a geneticist, so we found Dr. P at Texas Children's. We were able to schedule them on the same day and went down few days early to spend time with my sister, Cathy. It was a wonderful weekend and I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed hanging out with my sister and watching Jackson play with his "Cappy", as he affectionally called her! And Jackson even got to meet his great uncle Sam and his great grandmother.

Dr. P is an amazing and through doctor, who is very interested in Jackson. She met with us for over 2 hours and did extensive visual examinations of all of us. During our appointment, she asked me questions, I have been asked several times, "why do you want to know and why are you interested in this information?" These are two questions I have "struggled" with ever since Jackson was diagnosed. I've said it before, the whys don't matter, they won't change how much we love Jackson, how much we advocate for him or anything else. But the whys do matter as a mother, as his mom, I deserve to know why this happened, will it happen again and for him the whys matter because some day he may want children of his own. Dr. P also asked another question I have heard a million times over, "do you want more children?" The short answer to that question is yes. But the more complex answer deals with the whys. If the doctors and testing could guarantee without question that Jackson's Arthrogryposis is not genetic and there is the 1 in 10000 chance that we will have another child with Arthrogryposis, then sure we would have another child, but if the answer is as we suspect, not so cut and dry or if the cause is definitely genetic, then we will likely not have more children and will explore adoption. Would I have Jackson all over again? ABSOLUTELY!!! But it's not fair to any of us to go into a situation knowing it could be so much worse and that we might not be so blessed next time or to hinder Jackson or another child. We got our miracle and for that we are forever thankful!

Dr. P is running a genetic microarray test and it will hopefully give us more answers. Our appointment with Dr. G went well and she sent us home with some more stretching and will see us back in 6 months.

In other news, Jackson is back riding horses and we are getting set to participate in the International Acadian Festival Pageant again this weekend.

Thanks for checking in on us,

the heckerts