Saturday, June 24, 2017
Let Summer Begin!
We sure had a crazy start to our summer vacation! Now that we are home and Henry seems to be on the mend (still praying for good labs on Monday) we officially started summer yesterday. We went to our friend's house for a BBQ last night-- look at that dessert! It tasted even better than it looked. This morning I took the boys to the parade for Umatilla Landing Days. I think we will spend this afternoon in the pool since the forecast calls for 98℉.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Randall Children's Hospital
It's been an emotional few days. On Sunday I headed to Portland with William and Henry. We were supposed to visit the zoo with their cousins on Monday. Sunday night I noticed Henry's bruising seemed to be getting worse and worse. He slept horrible at the hotel and finally got a few hours of sleep at 4:30 in the am. We woke up around 8 and I noticed there was some blood on Henry's pillow and our sheets. I figured it was from his mouth since his teeth had been bleeding on and off since his fall from a swing on Saturday night. We prepared to go to the zoo, but as I changed Henry's diaper I got very scared-- his diaper was filled with blood.
I called my pediatrician and they recommended we take him to an ER. Long story short, we ended up at Randall Children's Hospital where Henry was diagnosed with ITP- an autoimmune disease that results in a lack of blood clotting due to a low number of platelets in the blood. They don't know exactly what causes ITP, but it usually follows some sort of prior infection where the body forms antibodies that attack not only the virus or bacterial infection, but also begin to attack blood platelets. It is usually not reoccurring and his body should bounce back up to normal levels of platelets given time. A typical person has 150,000-400,000 platelets per microliter of blood and Henry's initial measurement was less than 2,000. He needed two treatments to get his levels up sufficient enough to leave. We got the ok to come home Wednesday morning after his count increased from 6,000 to 41,000 from the first treatment to the second.
Thomas and I are so thankful. It was so scary to sit and wait for news about whether or not the treatment was successful. Henry was such a trooper- such a happy kid through it all. It really broke my heart but also made me so happy that each time Henry was really struggling and upset he cried and called out for "his brother" and "William" over and over again. He sure loves his big brother. Randall Children's Hospital was AMAZING. The facility, the doctors, and the nurses made the whole ordeal bearable. They took the best care of my little boy and for that I will forever be grateful.
We were able to take Henry to the zoo after he got discharged (although he didn't get to enjoy it with his brother and cousins on Monday) he was so happy to be there!
I called my pediatrician and they recommended we take him to an ER. Long story short, we ended up at Randall Children's Hospital where Henry was diagnosed with ITP- an autoimmune disease that results in a lack of blood clotting due to a low number of platelets in the blood. They don't know exactly what causes ITP, but it usually follows some sort of prior infection where the body forms antibodies that attack not only the virus or bacterial infection, but also begin to attack blood platelets. It is usually not reoccurring and his body should bounce back up to normal levels of platelets given time. A typical person has 150,000-400,000 platelets per microliter of blood and Henry's initial measurement was less than 2,000. He needed two treatments to get his levels up sufficient enough to leave. We got the ok to come home Wednesday morning after his count increased from 6,000 to 41,000 from the first treatment to the second.
Thomas and I are so thankful. It was so scary to sit and wait for news about whether or not the treatment was successful. Henry was such a trooper- such a happy kid through it all. It really broke my heart but also made me so happy that each time Henry was really struggling and upset he cried and called out for "his brother" and "William" over and over again. He sure loves his big brother. Randall Children's Hospital was AMAZING. The facility, the doctors, and the nurses made the whole ordeal bearable. They took the best care of my little boy and for that I will forever be grateful.
We were able to take Henry to the zoo after he got discharged (although he didn't get to enjoy it with his brother and cousins on Monday) he was so happy to be there!
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