February 2026

Archer is almost a year post transplant and he has been doing great! He has boundless amounts of energy and loves being outside. We were so glad to be able to celebrate his first Christmas home this year, and he loved playing with the boxes from under the tree. He has caught a cold or two, but overall, has been able to stay mostly healthy. He has started saying several words and getting that “toddler ‘tude’”, and never stops going!

Something that we have been working with his team on since his last cath procedure during the summer, is his persistently positive CMV (Cytomegalovirus) result. Many people carry CMV unknowingly without any symptoms, because their immune systems are strong enough to keep the virus in check. Where Archer is on immunosuppressants, his body can’t do that. CMV can cause several complications in transplant patients such as lung and heart infection, brain and spinal cord infections, or liver and digestive disease, in addition to the risk of organ rejection. He has been on medication to reduce the CMV levels, but hasn’t been able to clear it completely… UNTIL NOW! We have been doing weekly blood tests to check the CMV levels for the last 6 months, and in the last two weeks, his CMV levels have been “Not Detected”! This is HUGE! The team has decided to take him off of the medication and test again in a week to see if they remain stable and not detected.