Back to Seattle

Missing: Part of One chromosome

If found, please return

No questions Asked

Actually, we have lots of questions but now at least one answer. We took a second trip to Seattle in three days. Last weekend was purely for fun, Wednesday we returned because Jack had an appointment with a geneticist.

Jack’s geneticist had heard about a new test and had a spare vial of Jack’s blood sitting around, for some reason, so she had it examined. Turns out Jack is missing part of the 19^th chromosome. To be exact 19q13q12.11.

What does that mean? You got me. You got everybody. I guess the test is so new the Jack is the first person they’ve come across missing this particular piece of this particular chromosome. So chances are he’ll be the benchmark to which other kids are measured. Though it would seem a safe bet to attribute his low muscle-tone, delayed gross-motor skills and language development to this.

That’s where we sit, semi-diagnosed with further trips to Seattle coming up.

While Kim and Jack were at the Group Health Campus, Lucas and I headed down the hill to Seattle Center (again). We had a grand time. Couldn’t get a hold of Dave,

so we didn’t get our accustomed free-trip up the Space Needle. But that’s OK. We didn’t havemuch time. We did take another ride on the monorail and hung out at the International Fountain for quite a while. Ordinarily neither of us are much for sitting still, but this was a beautiful day (especially for October). The music and weather were nice, but the highlight was me posing for a photo in front of the fountain. I stood on a dry spot while Lucas focused. Goodness, that water shoots a lot further than I expected. I was doused, and screamed like a little girl. I was damp for hours. A small price to pay for a day of hooky.