Harrowing Holiday Weekend

Some people like to spend a 3-day weekend doing things like skiing, visiting family, home improvement projects. We have emergencies.

Paul was diagnosed with ITP, or Immune thrombocytopenic purpura. Wikipedia describes it pretty well.

I described the experience in a Facebook post:
We noticed that he had a lot more bruising than usual on his legs and arms a few days after spiking a fever. The next day he was covered with little broken blood vessel marks - kind of like a rash without any bumps. Shawn took him to the pediatrician, who thought it would be this diagnosis, but didn't know to what degree. He ran a full blood panel, and we got a call to hit the ER ASAP.

Once in the ER, they started an IV line and ran another blood panel, and counted his platelets. Normal range is 150-200k. Paul's was about 4K. So, he was admitted, administered an IV drug regimen, and we just have wait and see how he reacts.

Luckily, Paul reacted phenomenally to the treatment (IVIg, for those watching at home), and by this morning his platelet counts had more than tripled. Paul was discharged by the afternoon, and was thrilled to be reunited with Hippo, Elephant, and his stickers.

We need to go back to the hospital tomorrow or Wednesday for another blood screen to make sure his counts continue to rise. Then, we will need to have weekly blood tests (most often at a local hospital) for several months, as it is normal for counts to dip after a month or two, then rise again. After than, we'll probably still monitor his counts with monthly tests for a while. Thanks to his age and that this is immune and not idiopathic, chances for a complete recovery with no remission are very, very high.

We are thankful for the outpouring of support and well-wishes we've received from friends and family, and feel blessed that we got to take our child home after only two days on the children's hematology/oncology floor. We left many other children behind who had been there for weeks before us, and will remain for weeks after today.


Here's Paul catching a little shut eye with his Daddy after a grueling night in the ER:

Mommy and Daddy may have been stressed to near breaking point, but Paul seemed to love the hospital experience. He got to eat in bed, have Froot Loops and as many apple juice boxes as he could chug, plenty of pretty nurses and doctors to flirt with, watch hours and HOURS of Blue's Clues and other cartoons. So what if occasionally someone wanted to "give his leg a hug" (take blood pressure), make his toe glow (pulse-ox meter), or take a little blood? What price that for JUICE BOXES and BLUE'S CLUES?!?!?!?