I’m Aware That I’m Rare: Jennifer Garigen (265)

The phaware® interview

Pediatric pulmonary hypertension caregiver Jennifer Garigen discussed her son Tyler’s PH diagnosis, the importance of a PH Care Center and offers parenting tips for siblings of rare disease patients.

I’m Jennifer Garigan and I’m a pulmonary hypertension caregiver.

Our son was four at the time [he was diagnosed] and he showed no symptoms, no signs whatsoever, and just got a respiratory virus, so we went to the hospital. His oxygen saturations were in the 80s and they sent us to the emergency room. After two days in the hospital, we thought we were going to be told that he had pneumonia. Then, all of a sudden, there were eight or nine doctors in the room and we were learning about something called pulmonary hypertension that we’d never heard of in the past. We were very lucky that we got diagnosed right away before there was too many symptoms. We’re also very lucky that we have a PH care center within 20 minutes of our house and a great specialist who has guided us through the process.