Thymus

Like most of the things that keep me alive every day, I wasn't even aware a Thymus existed--let alone that one existed inside me.  Apparently, the Thymus educates T-cells on how to work, like a military camp for training soldiers.  Without a Thymus, the only way to defend against disease is to transplant T-cells into a body every time the T-cell count gets too low.

In the past few weeks, one of the fears for Jordan was that along with his SCID diagnosis, he might also have a genetic disorder called Charge syndrome.  This impacts organs and functions in the center of the body such as breathing and swallowing, the kidneys, and in some cases the Thymus.  The concern was that Jordan didn't have a Thymus which means he would have been transferred to either New York or Duke University to get T-cells implanted or to have an experimental surgery for a Thymus implant. In the last 15 years only 60 Thymus implants have been done and certainly not all have been successful.

Beyond the added challenge not having a Thymus would have created for Jordan, it also would have meant we as a family would have been traveling again--this time much further away.  So we fasted and prayed and after getting an MRI, the doctors informed us he does in fact have a Thymus, which is a huge sigh of relief.  We still aren't sure how well it is working, but we know it is there and so we are more hopeful that the bone marrow transplant can be successful.