The only good news we could get

It's amazing how your perspective on "Good News" changes. Once upon a time, I thought "good news" was finding something I liked on sale. I thought "good news" was my favorite movie being on TV on a lazy saturday afternoon. Good News used to be simple. Something that made me happy.

And yet, here I am, faced with what is ACTUALLY good news, but in light of the circumstances, I have to learn a new phase: The only good news we could ask for.

For, if you've read my blog before, you'll know that my heart belongs to two little boys - Andrew & Reece Littleton - sons of Max's best friend Jim & Lisa Littleton.

They found out in December that the boys have Muscular Dystrophy. It was initially diagnosed as Duchenne's MD - the most severe kind. After many months of this line of thinking, they had a biopsy done on Andrew 11 weeks ago. The results finally came in.

We've all spent these last 11 weeks waiting for the confirmation of Duchenne's, just so we could continue on preparing for the inevitable: wheelchairs, steroids, new home.

No one expected this.

Andrew's body - his precious, skinny little body - is producing dystrophin.

Until yesterday - this phrase meant nothing to me. I've since learned, however, that the production of dystrophin is the determining factor in Duchenne's vs. Becker's MD.

Duchenne's = no dystrophin
Becker's = dystrophin production with some mutation of the gene.

So - what this means, folks - is that Andrew & Reece will have a more normal childhood, and a longer time of walking and a longer life. They won't have to go on steroids, and research trials are put off for the short term.

It's such a shock to my brain - I almost can't get a grip on the fact that this is good news. I didn't think we'd get any more.