Alex is not your typical nine-year-old
he's very loving he's very caring he's concerned about others his friends are
everything to him and his family's more don't ever call me a growing up again
mine don't know this whole time that he's been sick he's never once
complained he never once said why me good job him and I have talked a lot about people
out there to have it a lot worse than he does
Alex has Crohn's disease and basically what it does is it infects his digestive
tract it just destroys your body it's emotional many sleepless nights
especially when he's not doing particularly well there's so much that
constantly sits in your head about the what-ifs when you have a child that has
a disease those what ifs our reality I give him a shot once a week of
methotrexate and he just takes it all in stride
thirsty
a clean up a little honey
ok we went to Weill Cornell and we met dr.
Cesar Vega he had mentioned to us that he's part of a research team trying to
find a cure for crumbs which got my wife digging in come over while Cornell does
and you know the more we read more we learn the more impressed we become Alex so
nice to meet you thank you for joining my study Crohn's patients are known to
have slower growth rate right now he's a little smaller than most of his friends
okay now his bony agent said dr. Gupta is looking into why growth problems are
more common in boys with crohn's and with girls who have the same disease
understanding why could lead to better treatment for boys and girls with
crohn's when dr. Gupta study came about dr. C told us this had Alex ran all over
it that mean yeah I hope and praying for those people that are doing the research
that they have a great day at work I really do yes they've had a calling to
go and try to fix one thing at a time
I would love to read my email one day from Weill Cornell and say we've hit the
jackpot and not just for my son but for every child every person that has
crohn's or IBD or colitis or anything that affects them in that way when I
have somebody like dr. Gupta who was willing to take the time not just to get
to know my son but to work with him to figure out what is the bone issue with
Crohn's patients it gives me high hopes because in not
just sitting back saying let's see what happens they're taking that bold
initiative and stepping forward so we just got to keep track of what's going
on with the bones it's difficult to not know what tomorrow brings for your son
my whole busy that he can just grow old he can live his life and he'll just grow
old as a family we take today whatever today brings us is what we deal with and
we worry about tomorrow when it gets here