ALD is a horrible disease that can take on many different forms. This family’s story is fascinating because it has clearly been present in their family for some time without symptoms that you might expect.

THIS is ALD #15  —  Kayden and Braxton

We welcomed our beautiful baby boy, Braxton, into our family 6 months ago. We received a call from the hospital about our son’s newborn screening. They said not to worry, but they would like to retest. We went back a week later and retested and he was positive for Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD).

I immediately went to Google — a huge mistake.  I felt it was a death sentence for my son. We spoke with a fellow firefighter who has a son with ALD and the first thing he said to us was we will need God through all of this and he was exactly right! We then came in contact with a mother who had a son with ALD. He was having adrenal issues. She had told me all boys die from ALD–that broke my heart. We met with our genetic counselor who then told us that this disease is either genetic or a spontaneous mutation. No one in my family has shown symptoms, but I chose to get tested to see if I was a carrier — I was. I felt like a failure of a mother. A mother is supposed to protect their child, here I was putting my child in harm’s way. It got worse when my 2-year-old son, Kayden, was tested and was also positive for ALD. I thought we could handle one case of it, but two!?!

I was heart broken and very depressed for quite some time. The more ALD families I came in contact with, the more I saw what this horrible disease can do and it scared me. Not knowing the future scared me. I had no clue where this disease was coming from — we had no family history of the disease. Many in our family refused to get tested, and my mother had passed. My sister from my father’s side (we have different mothers) offered to get tested and she was positive. The genetic counselor said it was impossible for my father to have ALD as he is asymptomatic at the age of 50.

The genetic counselor was wrong – my father was tested and was positive for ALD. Luckily he has no adrenal issues and a clean MRI. I thought wow, how amazing!!! From there, two other sisters from my father were tested and they are also carriers. A total of 4 carriers (if a father has the mutation, his daughters will always be carriers). My other sisters do not have children, but are very grateful they know. While researching our family history we found that we had an uncle over 60 years ago who had Addison’s Disease, but he passed of old age. The rest of our family members refuse to get tested as they live in the mind set that many generations have had this and everyone is asymptomatic and they will handle it if something happens (I hope it is not too late by then). My family so far seems to be an example of living with a deadly disease.

Braxton and Kayden are seen by Dr. Raymond in Hershey, PA (a doctor with a huge amount of experience with ALD). They will have MRIs and get their adrenal glands checked every 6 months. I no longer live in fear now that I have a plan set up to monitor my boys with a doctor very familiar with the disease and I do have strong hope that many can survive this unpredictable disease and that hopefully my children will follow a similar path to others in our family.

I have become close with many families that have experienced ALD or are now experiencing it. I have as well started a support group for families in which has grown over the past month. This journey is not what I expected for my life, but it has strengthened my faith in God and made me cherish the days all the more and stress less about the small stuff. This is not the end for us, but a new beginning with a different perspective. We plan to have another child and we have a 4 year-old daughter (they will not test her until she is of age to have children). I am beyond grateful for the newborn screening in PA and pray everyday for a cure!

Thank you for listening to our story!

— Jennifer

********

Thank you Jennifer for sharing your family’s story. “Unpredictable” is such a perfect word to describe ALD. As your family proves, it can present itself in many different ways – including limited/no symptoms. My hope is that Braxton and Kayden will follow the family tradition and live their lives enjoying good health and no (or few) signs of ALD.

AND, I am so happy that Pennsylvania has ALD on the newborn screening panel and that you are blessed with the knowledge you need to monitor your boys so closely, as this disease can be very unpredictable even within a single family. Knowledge is power!

Love, Jess