You scared us half to death. Here is the full and complete story for you to read when you are older.
At the beginning of December, you got sick with something called Herpangina. You had these sores all over your mouth. You didnt eat or drink much for a whole week. You got better on a Tuesday, but by Wednesday, your mouth started bleeding. I called the Dr and she said that it was normal to have some bleeding as the sores popped. I told them that you were bleeding on your gums and not your tongue to which the Dr said "No she had sores on her gums too." OK fine. That night you fell and your back hit the brick fireplace and then later you fell and hit your eye on a cupboard. I knew that they were going to leave some marks.
Anyway, Thursday morning (the 9th), you woke up in a puddle of blood about 8 inches in diameter. I got nervous but then was like "no the dr said it was normal." But then Dad started to get really nervous and said "maybe you should take her to the hospital right now." (It was only like 7 am. Dr didn't open till 8:30) Then I really started freaking out because this is coming from Daddy who is usually like "It's only a 105 degree fever. Dont worry about it!" So I said, "well, I dont want to take her into the ER, so I will just wait until the Drs opens and just make an appointment this time without telling them why." At the time, you were very happy and in a great mood. You could finally eat and drink without pain, so I just kept telling myself that there was nothing to worry about. I almost decided not to take you to the Drs because I really didn't want to waste their time. Also, you had a nice black eye and were covered head to toe in bruises. I was kinda worried they would call CPS on me. Anyway, I called up and made an appointment for 10. I get there and the Dr walks in and is like "ummm, I have no idea why she is bleeding." She takes off your PJs (I firmly believe sick kids should stay in PJs.) and starts seeing all of your bruises. I told her about where the bruises came from and where the black eye came from, but that I didn't know where the others came from. The dr started getting really worried and told me that I needed to take you to get her some labs (my fears were not being quieted). As I zipped up your PJs, I noticed that your stomach was covered in red dots. I showed them to the dr and asked what they were and she said that she didnt know and that I needed to go get your labs right now and she checked the stat box on the order. By that time I was getting pretty worried.
We took you to do the labs and then went to pick ben up from preschool. While I was picking up Ben, I ran into my friend and told her about what was going on. She told me to call if I needed help. I was pulling into my house when the lab called me back and said that I needed to take you back in to get her retested. I asked why and they said that they needed to confirm them. By this time I was in a complete panic. I called my friend and asked her if she could watch the boys while I took you back in and I kinda started crying on the phone. I was really freaked. She said of course and I took you back in for more blood work and they told me that the Dr would call me in about half an hour. I picked up the boys and took everyone home for naps.
Brynna showing off her bloody mouth and her black eye
The Dr called after what seemed like forever. She told me that your platelet count was very very low so your blood wasn't clotting. That is why you were bleeding from her mouth and had all of the bruises. She said I was going to need to take you into the ER there in Porterville and then they will transport you from there up to Valley Children's. As I was driving to the ER I needed to be extreemly careful so that I didnt jostle you cuz if I did, she could have internal bleeding. The drs wouldnt be able to stop the bleeding fast enough. She was just waiting to hear back from the Hematologist at Valley Children's and she would call me back in 10 minutes. I thought that I was panicked before, but to have all my fears confirmed was a different story. I called Dad and told him what was going on. Then I called Grandma Hunter and asked if she could come down and help out. At that point, the Dr called back and said that she got ahold of the Hematologist and he said to just wait and take you into the Hematology clinic at 8:30 the next morning. I could tell the Dr didn't like this so she told me to drive really slow up to Madera (where Valley Children's is) and that if I was at all worried, to just take you straight into the ER. I tried calling Grandma Hunter back, but I couldn't get ahold of her. So I called Dad and told him what was going on. My friend called at that point and I told her what was going on. She said that she could have her husband go pick up Dad (we only had one car) and then they could give you a blessing. I told her that sounded great.
When they showed up, they had brought dinner for us. We will always be very thankful to the Wilder family. Around this time, I finally got ahold of Grandma Hunter and she just decided to come down anyways (since she was halfway here) and help us out with the kids. Dad decided to take tomorrow off and went to his school to leave sub plans. We ate dinner and got clothes together then we all left for Grandma's. We were very careful with you but by the time we arrived at Grandma's, your torso was covered with plenty of new bruises. I decided that I was too freaked out so we just dropped off the boys, put them in bed, and headed the rest of the way to the hospital. On our way we called Dr Buttan and she called the hospital to let them know we were coming so that we wouldnt sit in the ER. However, when we got there, they had no record of you or your condition. We sat in the waiting room for awhile, then were taken to a triage room. (None of us thought to take a camera, so all of your pics are with a camera phone and blurry.)
(you were using the top of the bed as a slide)
You were in such a good mood. You just wanted to laugh and play. The only time you were fussy was when they came in to give you your IV. And once they had it in, you went right back to playing. In fact, you thought the board on your hand was the coolest thing ever! They re-ran the same labs that you had done back in Porterville and then just gave you some saline. The saline hydrated you more which made you bleed more. Some different doctors came in at different times all asking the same questions (they didn't know how to read a chart I guess). The first Dr said when he came in "well of course you worry about Lukemia anytime a platelet count is this low" to which I thought to myself "the thought hadn't entered my mind until you said something. thanks." But the later Drs agreed with Dr Buttan's diagnosis of ITP. The last Dr came in and explained that your bod was fighting off the Herpangina and when a little crazy and started destroying your platelets also. They couldn't just give you platelets because your body would just destroy those also so they were going to give you a medicine first that would trick your body into stopping.
(your mouth was extra yucky at this point)
At around 3 in the morning (we showed up at 8:30) they transferred us up to the oncology ward. There they weighed you and re-ran all the same labs yet again (I dont think they realized that you were already loosing tons of blood). They told us the rules about using only thier diapers and wipes, not throwing them away until they came and weighed them, not giving you any food or drink other than what the hospital provided you , and to keep you in baby jail (the crib that was there). At that point Dad and I tried to get a little bit of sleep (you had finally fallen asleep around 2 am), but a nurse or registered nurse came in about every half hour or so. At about 5 they started giving you medicine called IVIG. They also had to give you tons of Tylenol and Benedryl because your body could have an allergic reaction. They told us that they would have to come in and check on you every 15 mins for the first hour, every half an hour for the next two hours, and every hour after that. It would take 6-8 hours to give you the medicine because they had to do it really slowly. Saying I didn't get much sleep is an understatement. At one point there were a bunch of nurses in here because your temp had dropped to 95 degrees. Another time, the night time helper nurse (you always had 2, a helper and a RN) came in, freaked out and started calling for the RN. She had seen the puddle of blood that you were sleeping in and got really scared. The other nurse came in and just said "I know! But the Drs say that they know what is going on." This kinda made me feel better. Up to this point I started to wonder if I was just over reacting. It was nice to see someone outside our family truly concerned for you. Considering your interupted sleep, by the next morning when you woke up, you were in a great mood. Well, as long as there were no nurses in the room. You really hated whenever they came in because it meant that they were taking your blood pressure. You would cry and cry so they would have to take it 3-5 times before they could get an accurate reading. By the time we left that afternoon, your arm where the pressure cuff sat was just one big bruise. Anyways, that morning you ate breakfast and watched some TV (Mikey Mouse Club House).
(you took care of your dolly the whole time)
O Toodles!
Dad left to go check on the boys at Grandmas, take a shower, and get our clothes that we left there. While he was gone, Sister Bower (the Primary President) sent you this cute stuffed giraffe and a Hello Kitty Balloon. You were so excited and happy.
Then you played in the baby jail the rest of the time. This was the coolest crib (I thought) because the sides went all the way up to a roof. You thought it was pretty fun too because you found that the board on your hand made a fun noise against the plastic roof.
The drs from Hematology finally came in to see you. He told me that I should have just waited to take you in and then we wouldn't be stuck here in the admitted section. I asked him what her level was and he said 5 and that normal was above 150. I asked him what they had been yesterday and he said 15. Well, excuse me, my daughter dropping another 10 points seems like a good reason to come into the ER for me. They told me that you had ITP and that this medicine would work for about 3 weeks. It didn't cure your sickness, it just helped for a little while. Your body would just eventually (in 6 weeks- 6 months) realize what it was doing and stop. It would take the medicine 24-48 hours to start to work so if you were still bleeding on Sunday that we needed to take you back in. As soon as the medicine finished, you could go home. They left and a few hours later your medicine finished and they gave us a bunch of papers to fill out and then sent us on our way.
No comments:
Post a Comment