Once we returned to Roanoke, our pediatrician wanted to run some blood work on Noah to check his immune system. He was concerned with how often Noah was sick and in his office. The blood work showed that his body was not building up immunity to things he had already been vaccinated for. The doctor recommended giving Noah a different strand of vaccines to help him fight off more illnesses. (Keep in mind, I have zero medical background so I was confused by this and why it was necessary). It didn't make a lot of sense to me because I had never heard of that. So I asked if we could be referred to an immunologist to further check his immune system and seek a second opinion. I wanted to see if he also agreed that Noah should have a different strand of vaccines. He gladly referred us and off we went. He was also eager to see what further testing of the immune system would reveal and agreed that due to the amount of illnesses Noah was experiencing, this was a good call. Noah had allergy testing done first. We learned that allergies and the immune system go hand in hand sometimes. For example, if Noah was highly allergic to something he came in contact with every day, then his body would be so busy fighting the allergy that it would be unable to properly fight off illness. Everything came back negative. Noah was not allergic to anything. At this point, we knew it was an issue with his immune system. We sent off the blood work. Here is what we found. Noah's immune system was delayed. Specific Antibody Deficiency. He had zero immunity built up against certain viruses that he had already been vaccinated for. He was repeatedly catching the same things over and over without his body building up immunity to it. All of his pneumococcal levels were extremely low. I'm not even going to pretend that I understand all of that but apparently it made him more susceptible to upper respiratory infections/illnesses. So, we gave him a different round of vaccines that covered more strands of viruses. Pneumococcal 23 vaccine as affirmed by the immunologist. He agreed with our pediatrician on the introduction of new vaccines. Noah also started using a daily dose of QVAR inhaler to work as a barrier against upper respiratory infections. A breathing treatment via inhaler every day. His health significantly improved. Problem solved. That's how we felt. The immunologist saw him every few months and said that usually a delayed immune system catches up by age 5. The plan was to slowly wean him off of the QVAR inhaler over the next few years.
In December 2014 our family moved to Chesapeake, Virginia where Dalton accepted a new job as the campus pastor of the Greenbrier campus at Liberty Baptist Church. We found a new pediatrician here. Noah was now 3 years old. His new pediatrician felt that he didn't need to be on the QVAR inhaler anymore, especially since he was no longer having frequent illnesses. It appeared as though he had never heard of a child Noah's age being put on QVAR as a result of immune issues. He had been healthy overall for a significant amount of time. So we stopped his medicine and his overall health was good, great really. Over a year had passed with no major health issues. We really thought that his delayed immune system had caught up and we weren't anticipating any more issues. Our boy was better.
In the summer of 2015, I was largely pregnant with our 3rd son. He was due to be born in July. Noah was about to celebrate his 4th birthday. Noah has always been a dreamer. By that I mean, he dreams a lot and he has such a vivid memory of his dreams. It's not uncommon for him to say, "Mommy! Do you know what I dreamed last night?" ,and he will give you every last detail. So, one day in the summer when he said to me- "Mommy. I need to tell you about my dream last night. It's very important." - I honestly didn't think anything about it. Until he started telling me his dream. This is what he said....
"Mommy, last night I dreamed that Noah got really sick. Like super sick and nobody knew what was wrong with me. The doctors didn't know. Mommy and daddy didn't know. And God took me to heaven. You were looking for me. Everyone was looking for me, saying 'Noah! Noah!', but you couldn't find me and you couldn't hear me because I was in heaven with Jesus. Hey mommy, did you know I have a grandma in heaven and a grandpa in heaven? (Yes Noah, I do!) Yeah, well I saw them! Grandma had toys for me and a scooter! (he's never had a scooter) And then my grandpa said, 'Hey Noah! Come on in, boy!'"
It's interesting because Papa Massey talked just like that, same inflection and accent in his voice that Noah used when telling me his dream. But Noah doesn't remember Papa's voice. He only met him at 2 months old. There's no way he could know what Papa sounded like.
I didn't like Noah's dream that day. I don't think any parent would. But I just dismissed it and said, "Noah it was just a dream. You haven't been sick in a really long time. You're doing great buddy! Don't you worry. Noah is doing great." But tears filled my eyes as I sat on the couch that night and told Dalton what our boy had dreamed. The next day, I called my parents and told them what Noah had dreamed. I struggled to shake it off. I remember saying to them, "Isn't that weird? He hasn't been sick in a really long time. Why would he dream that?" After pondering it in my heart a few days, we carried on like normal. End of story. Until winter came.
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