Cruz was born on May 21, 2001 to my middle brother, Mike and Tina. Mike is 6 ft. 2 in. and Tina is 5 ft. 1 in. Tina's pregnancy was typical, nothing major that would indicate any problems with Cruz. When Cruz was born he looked like any other baby being born that day. It wasn't until a few years into his life that we noticed that there may be a problem. Cruz was falling off the growth chart with every well-child check up. We also began to notice that his hands were very small. No one in our family wanted to believe that anything was wrong with him. We kept hoping he would soon have a growth spurt and everything would be fine.
It wasn't until Cruz was 5 years old that he was diagnosed with a form of dwarfism. Shortly after that he was started on growth hormone injections to help him grow taller. He tolerated the injections very well. He also had tubes put in his ears due to recurrent ear infections and fluid. Recurrent ear infections are common among little people.
When Cruz was 7 years old he was diagnosed with severe kidney disease. Kidney disease isn't typically a characteristic of dwarfism so this baffled his doctors. He had extremely high blood pressure and only 20-25% kidney function at that time. Our whole family was devastated with this news.
Here is a timeline of Cruz's life up until his kidney transplant in 2009.
9/12/08: Cruz's creatinine levels were 3.8. His doctors were in close contact with the transplant team at Hershey Medical Center (HMC).
9/19/08: Admitted to HMC for high blood pressure and to rule out pneumonia.
9/21/08: Home from HMC. Blood pressure was stabilized.
9/22/08: Back to HMC with extremely high blood pressure. Cruz was sent home the next day.
10/9/08: To HMC to have port placed in his belly to start peritoneal dialysis.
10/12/08: Cruz's family held a benefit for him at Naylor’s Winery to help raise money for his medical expenses. Cruz was still in the hospital that day but his doctors gave Cruz's mom permission to take him to his benefit for a short appearance. Then it was back to HMC. Cruz was discharged on 10/17/08.
10/21/08: Cruz had his tonsils and adenoids removed.
Shortly after that, Cruz returned to school and kept very busy. Cruz remained on in-home peritoneal dialysis for 10 hours each night. Mike and Tina were both tested for kidney donation and Tina was chosen to give one of her kidneys to Cruz. The picture below shows Mike hooking Cruz up for his nightly dialysis.
2/10/09: Cruz's kidney transplant!! This picture is of Cruz a few hours after transplantation.
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