Transfusions

I spoke too soon about Eli’s great platelet making ability. We went in Monday afternoon for Eli’s counts and found out that his platelets were 9 (down from 27) and his red blood was 7.8 (they transfuse if it goes below 8). So Monday afternoon we got a bag of platelets and Tuesday we went in to get red blood (by the time we got there on Tuesday, the red blood had already dropped further to 6.9)! The platelets from Monday had made his new count 54 on Tuesday, so that was good. We were told to wait until Friday to come in and do counts, but I received a call this morning from Sloan saying that they wanted him to come in and do counts today instead. So, breaking my promise that we didn’t have to go in to the hospital today and that he could play with his buddy Griffin, we went in to do a CBC (quick finger stick). As it turned out, they wanted electrolytes too, so I had to get out my emla cream to numb his port (yes, I carry emla cream in my pocket, total cancer dad/mom thing). He loved this because for some reason, he would choose being accessed over a finger stick any day. This also meant we had to wait around for an hour, so to say I was annoyed that they didn’t mention the electrolytes on the phone when we were still at the Ronald would be an understatement. So, Eli got accessed, they did our counts and Dr. Kramer told us a bit later that his platelets were once again borderline (down to 22). We could wait until Friday to get the platelets or just do them today and not have to come back until Monday. Obviously we decided to do that and Eli got his platelets and is now sleeping off the Benadryl. Unfortunately that shot all of our plans for today, but at least we will get a long weekend. His red blood was 9, white blood still .3, and ANC is still not reportable (0), which means we are still residing in neutropenic land (as expected), but not inpatient (I was expecting we’d be inpatient by now, honestly). We are continuing the GCSF shot every night (which actually eats up platelets). We will see where everything stands on Monday. Counts coming up would certainly be nice!

Next Wednesday we will be doing a flow study on Eli’s Omaya port in his head. They basically inject dye into it and then do a scan after 1 hour, 4 hours, and 24 hours to see if it flows the way they expect it to. If that turns out ok and once his counts come back up (platelets need to stay above 50 on their own), we’ll be able to start the 8H9!

Thanks to everyone keeping us in your prayers. Also, thanks to everyone who has been supporting the St. Baldrick’s event happening this Saturday. The Becker Underwood IT team is halfway to their goal! We are so thankful for what they and the other shavees – Mark, Kris, Brian, Tim, Mel, and the other Mark are doing to raise awareness and funding for pediatric cancer research. Be sure to check out the “honored children” section to see the other Iowa kids being honored at the event!

http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/team_info.php?TeamKey=2009-64611

http://www.stbaldricks.org/events/event_info.php?EventKey=2009-2248&ViewDetails=children