By DeAndra Yates Photos By Buonanno Photography DeAndra Dycus — Writer and Contributor
THE RESILIENCE
When you hear the words “You’re pregnant,” every emotion that you could possibly feel arises. Joy, fear, adoration, nervousness, and everything in between begin to take over. You then start to exhibit that “pregnancy glow,” beaming “just because.” As you enter the second trimester, you begin to exhale because you feel safe to share your good news about the miracle growing inside you. But then a cough changes it all. It sounds simple, but truthfully, it begins a complex journey. That dry, annoying cough led to a diagnosis of CMV for Jacky Doke. CMV stands for cytomegalovirus, an infection that can have mild to severe effects on a fetus. According to the CDC, CMV is the most common infectious cause of birth defects in the United States. About one in 200 babies is born with congenital CMV (cCMV). It is the No. 1 cause of newborn hearing loss, but can also cause vision loss, intellectual impairment, and other neurodevelopmental disorders. The cough is often overlooked, so it causes missed or late diagnosis of the virus, which leads to delayed treatment of the potential long-term health complications in the baby. On Feb. 21, 2007, Emory Doke was born to Jacky and her husband Bob in Noblesville, IN. Blood tests had revealed to Jacky prior to delivery that her baby boy was infected with CMV. He had microcephaly (smaller than normal head size) and although he passed his newborn hearing test, Jacky noticed that he exhibited signs of poor hearing as a toddler. He was diagnosed with degenerative hearing loss at age 3, so his hearing has been tested regularly since then. By 6 months of age, Emory showed obvious delays in physical development, including poor muscle tone (hypotonia) and delayed motor coordination--he didn’t walk till age 5 ½. Eventually, doctors settled on an overall diagnosis of global developmental delay (GDD) for Emory. Because the infection left a calcification in Emory’s frontal lobe, he is left-side dominant, meaning he has little use of his right side. As his mom puts it, “he knows his right hand is there, but he seldom uses it.” And although he is somewhat verbal, he has his own language, which makes it difficult for others to communicate with him. Fortunately, speech therapy has helped him make great strides in that area. Jacky and her husband accepted the life-changing circumstances surrounding Emory’s entry into the world and decided to deal with challenges head on. At the time, they already had an 18-month-old daughter, Abbey. A year after Emory was born, the Dokes had another baby boy, Hunter. They also have 42
August 2022
of the Doke Family
