On the Trail of Unknown Diseases

Treatment TermsChildren's health Sub-Title Duke Doctors Give Families Long-Sought Answers Author Dave Hart Overview It wasn't until Quinn was about five months old that his parents, Liz Aronin and Jamie Mills, suspected something wasn't quite right. At an age when most children begin to sit up, grasp objects, babble, track visual movement and respond to voices, Quinn didn ’t do any of those things. Hero Imageon_the_trail_of_unkown_diseases_1.jpg Preview Image Content Blocks Content" His doctor initially said to wait, because kids develop at different rates, ” said Jamie, a grants administrator at Duke. “But at about seven months, she said, ‘OK, I’m concerned now too.’”Months of appointments, tests, and meetings with specialists soon followed. Meanwhile, Quinn needed constant care. He had seizures. He cried for entire days. Liz and Jamie traded shifts, but there was never enough sleep, never a respite from the stress of knowing their child was seriously ill, but not knowing why.“We were just surviving,” said Liz, a Duke nurse. “Quinn was so miserable I couldn’t even take him out of the house. You’re sleep-deprived, housebound, and you don’t know what’s wrong with your child. We were really struggling to take care of Quinn and ourselves.”At the end of all those tests, Liz and Jamie still  didn’t know what Quinn had. And they didn’t know whether they could ever have more children without risk.“Then our gen...
Source: dukehealth.org: Duke Health News - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Source Type: news