How we got to ITP...

We haven't been in touch lately and folks are asking if Addie has made an arrival. The answer is no, thankfully Addie is holding off for now so that we can deal with Jackson's health issues. We have been struggling to cope with an unexpected illness called ITP. To be honest, I'm not very good at dealing with stress and I tend to panic easily. This diagnoses has been very hard on us and we are trying to take it a day at at time, but everything has seemed so unreal the last few days that we haven't reached out, but will when we are ready.

Heading back to Thursday August 6: I left a doctor appointment and I picked Jackson up from Playschool and noticed that he has several scratch marks on his neck. I asked him what happened and was informed that "Isaiah did it." As I look up, Isaiah and his mom are talking to one of the teachers, Megan. Jackson's teacher Alexis confirmed that Isaiah and Jackson got into a battle over a toy and that Isaiah was very aggressive and it took a bit for Megan to get him off of Jackson. After Isaiah and his mom left the building, Alexis informed me that Isaiah had a rough day and had a stack of incident reports. (While Jackson has been in his share of scuffles at Playschool, we have never been sent home with an incident report.) That evening I noticed that along with the scratches, bruises were forming along Jackson's neck. I also noticed that he had a significant bruise under his right arm... in what looked to be the shape of a thumbprint.

Friday August 7: I met up with my friend Cari and her son Henry for some play time at Java train. Jackson played in the train and was out of my sight for 5 minute incriments. One time as he was trying to climb up to the chair next to me, he slipped a bit and managed to scrape his shin on the chair, no tears involved, he tried again and made it up on the chair.

When I got Jackson up from nap, I noticed that his shin was really bruised, when I asked him what happened, he told me that he fell on the chair at Java Train. Hrmmph... really? I didn't realize it was THAT bad, poor kid, bad mom. :(

Time for the boy to get his hair cut... off to Kidz Hair we go. Half way into his haircut, Jackson is holding incredibly still watching Scooby Dooby Doo, the stylist asks about the lump on his head. What lump? I get up to check out the hematoma-quarter-sized-purple-welt on my poor boy's head. I call Ron and we decide that we will head to Playschool next and talk to the Owner, Carol.

Playschool: Carol is aware of the situation from the day before and tells me that they will be moving Isaiah to the next room. He is not any older than the kids in his room, but he is aggressive and they are hoping that moving him with bigger kids will help. She apologizes for the incident and off we go.

Saturday August 8: I am a bit distraught over the condition of my kid... bruises on his neck, arms and legs. We go about our day and when Ron gets home we talk about the bruises and wonder what we should do about childcare. We question if we are doing enough.

Sunday August 9: Jackson wakes up with even more brusing... and now he seems to have pin-point sized bruising on his legs and belly. We do some online research and know that this could be something very serious such as, Leukemia. We call a nurse line and Ron talks extensively to a nurse about what is going on. She thinks we should take Jackson in on Monday to his primary doctor and figure it out from there, she doesn't think it's an emergency.

I continue to look at my son, realizing that he is covered in pin-point sized bruises and after a brief stint on the potty chair has bruised in a ring around his butt. Ron calls Urgent Care and we get in at 11:45.

Urgent Care: Jackson does great for the nurse allows her to take his temperature, stands still on the scale to be weighed, and keeps his finger still while his oxygen level is monitored. Dr. Scanlon the on-call doctor at Aspen thinks the bruising is abnormal and sends us to the lab for a blood draw. Jackson does incredible getting his blood drawn, not one tear and is happy to have the Spiderman sticker! The blood tests are done and it comes back that Jackson's platelet level is at 0. Ugh. Dr. Scanlon has called ahead to Children's ER and tells us to take Jackson there.

Children's ER: Jackson is given a gown and we wait to see doctor Jeffrey Louie. It is decided that he will do another blood draw at the ER because their machines are more accurate and can get a closer measurement of his platelet level. Nurse Jen comes back in to take his blood and put in an IV in case Jackson needs a transfusion. Jackson again does really well and is such a trooper, he sheds a couple of tears and tells the nurse he wants to sit with his mommy, but he really does so very well. After another hour of waiting the doctor comes back with the news that his platelet level is sitting at 3,000 per cu/ml. This level is DANGEROUSLY LOW, normal platelet count is 150,000 - 400,000 per cu/ml. The hemotologist and our primary doctor have been contacted. Jackson's white blood count is normal, therefore we can rule out Leukemia. We are given information on his diagnoses ITP and sent home, told to be very careful and limit Jackson's activities. We know that Jackson will bruise with any pressure, that his level of platelets is so low that his blood will not clot and that a head injury could be fatal at this point.

Monday August 10: We check in with Jackson's primary doctor, Dr. Mayrand. Dr. Mayrand has seen only 4 cases of ITP in his 18 years of practice, but is working closely with the hematologist at Children's to guide us in Jackson's care. We will continue to take things a day at a time. Jackson had to give another sample of blood and this time didn't go as smooth, he knows what's coming and isn't so happy about the needle headed his way. The blood was sent off to Abbot and now we will wait for these results and hope that the platelet count starts rising. Our main concern is keeping Jackson safe and limiting the brusing as much as possible. How to tell a 2.5 year old boy that he can't run, or that he needs to be calm and less active is what we are trying to figure out now.

These pictures don't really pick up all of the bruising, but they give you an idea what he looks like. He's still a happy boy and is not in pain... he just looks like he got run over by a truck. Thankfully they did the blood tests before they called child protection to take the little guy away from us!