When to get tested

You should be suspicious if you have an infection that is…

Severe – requires hospitalization or intravenous antibiotics

Persistent – won’t completely clear up or clears very slowly

Unusual – caused by an uncommon organism

Recurrent – keeps coming back or if it

Runs in the Family – others in your family have had a similar susceptibility to infection

At the meeting yesterday there was a question and answer session with an immunologist and an allergist. One of the questions was, "can I wean off of the igg replacement?" The immunologist's answer struck me and has been on my mind since then. He said that he had a patient whose parents chose not to give him replacement therapy due to the fact that igg is a blood product and it was against their religion. Over the course of a year he was hospitalized frequently due to infections. Eventually his parents were convinced that they should give him therapy. He died that day from an infection. The immunologist said that he felt it was the biggest failure of his medical career.

Low igg (hypogammaglobulinemia) is life threatening. I wish I didn't know that. I wish my baby was healthy, and that we never had to worry about illnesses. Fiona was tested because I thought she was sick too often. My aunt mentioned checking Fiona's immunoglobulins. I thought testing her was crazy. When the results came back we were shocked.


We found Fiona's immune deficiency because it was mentioned to us. Primary immune deficiencies are more common than you would think. It's estimated that 1 in 1,200 people have a primary immune deficiency. If you think you have a problem, please go get tested.