Saving Baby Matthew

On November 10,2014 at 3:51 pm we welcomed our bright eyed beautiful baby boy into the world, only minutes old and he was already full of life, pushing himself up to look around the room at everyone waiting to greet him.  On November 12,2014 we received devastating news. Our little man was diagnosed with x-linked scid (severe combined immune deficiency syndrome) also known as the "bubble boy" disease. For those of you who are unaware of what scids is, basically Matthew's immune system is completely compromised and if he is not treated with a bone marrow transplant, something as simple as a common cold can and likely will kill him. We are involved with the immunology department at the Hospital for Sick Kids in Toronto. They recently tested our immediate family to see if any of us were a match for Matthew but unfortunately none of us are. So now our next step is to search the world wide bone marrow registry to find an unrelated donor. This can take anywhere from 3 to 5 months. So in the meantime we live at home in a sterile environment with no visitors, we aren't able to go to public places and we must wash and sanitize our hands any time before handling Matthew. As of right now Matthew is receiving antibiotics as a preventative measure to to protect him from contracting one type of infection called pneumocystis, he will take this for 2 weeks and then will start a new antibiotic at 1 month of age that will also help protect him from developing this infection. Sometime in early December we will be starting his IVIG this is where they give him antibodies to help strengthen what little immune system he has. When they do find a match for him he will undergo chemotherapy treatments to prepare him for his bone marrow transplant. In this time we will have to move to Toronto and live at the Ronald McDonald House. Unfortunately we don't have means to all the funds to pay for our living expenses in both Toronto and our home. living and travel expenses are just an added stress to our already very heartbreaking situation .