Happy Birthday to Gavin & Colby

A very bittersweet day for the Guy family. The toughest week of our lives began one year ago today when we were blessed with the birth of our two miracle babies. We just needed one more miracle for Gavin...
Please remember Gavin and all of the TTTS victims and TTTS survivors as well. Both Jennifer and I are wearing our TTTS awareness ribbons today in remembrance of Gavin, in celebration of Colby and for TTTS awareness.

Colby is doing excellent. Check out the family blog link for his updates.

SG

May 5, 2008

One year ago today, we received the official diagnosis that our identical twins were suffering from a severe case of TTTS, and within hours of that diagnosis, we were planning our trip to Cincinnati for their life saving laser surgery.

Wakemed conference- Gavin

We had a final review of Gavin's medical file(s) with Dr Parsons and Dr Bastek at Wake Med a few weeks ago (January 26). There was really no new news, except some expanded theories. The Dr's still think a virus was the cause, but this was never proven (no positive cultures), and never will be. Infections and viruses in premature infants are very dangerous, since their immune symptoms are very immature, and viruses/infections are one of the leading causes in all infant deaths (even in full term babies). Most of the symptoms that Gavin presented closely resembled a virus or infection, and one virus specifically called an Echo virus may have been the culprit per the Dr's research and opinions. Sepsis-like illness (blood infection) and liver failure is a dominate feature of echo viruses (and Gavin had liver and then kidney failure), and the infection is active in the summer and fall. This virus can also be somewhat challenging to culture. The Wake Med Dr's are still perplexed and genuinely bothered and hurt by Gavin's decline and passage. They have discussed his case at many of their neonatal conferences and seminars, since it is definitely somewhat rare, especially combined with the good health of his identical twin brother Colby. Colby is 6 months old as of today's posting, and is thankfully, a very happy and healthy 15.5 pound baby boy.