August 18 - Blood Work

August 18 - Blood Work

Well it's Friday so it's the point when we would have done blood work anyways, but we are definitely doing it after the day Levi had yesterday and continuing today. Levi was sent home from school around noon on Thursday because he had spent much of the day in the bathroom and had several accidents. His poor belly just isn't happy!

Since I knew that I was staying home with Levi today we didn't rush the morning. He had earned Dizzy yesterday so he spent some time playing with Dizzy and Jett.

 Then we headed down to the lab. I was talking to P about the fact that we hadn't gotten the fax on Tuesday when Levi was getting his band-aid. He brought me a box and said "I want the chocolate ice cream one Mommy! Please!" I suppressed a giggle and hunted the box to find him the "chocolate ice cream". I was able to find one and he was so excited! He headed over to the chair and climbed up to open his band-aid. Then climbed down to throw out the trash.

 Here is a close up of his "chocolate ice cream" that yes came out of an emoji box of band-aids! :)

 The draw went fairly well! Was quick and easy and we were off to treasure box. Levi saw McQueen right on top and was super excited! He gave his hugs and we were off.

 Because I needed Levi to eat something after the past 24 hours of his poor belly we headed to McDonald's. He loves their sausage and pancakes! But don't even think about putting syrup on his pancake he might hit you! He just wants to pick it up and eat it. After we ordered our food I got ready to play when a lady came from the table right by the door and said "I'll pay" I said "You don't have to do that" and she said "Let me! I'll pay for it!" We thanked her and told her to have a nice day! She told us to have one too! It was a little glimpse of amazing generosity in a world that has not been filled with it lately!

Levi and I headed home for a day of relaxing, working, napping, TV, and playing! Counts didn't come in until 11:30!! I was about to make Jay call the lab again when the fax finally came in. Levi's counts were 273. A 40 point drop since Tuesday but not bad considering what we are going thru with his belly and the fact that we have an infusion on Tuesday! So glad that whatever is causing his belly issues isn't causing us other issues as well. Hopefully his belly will be better soon!

Next plan: Infusion on Tuesday!

August 15 - Blood Work

August 15 - Blood Work

Well this is not the regularly scheduled program. We are here at the lab on a Tuesday! Levi was out of school yesterday because of a stomach bug. Stomach bugs can put our numbers down lower then anything else so both Jay and I were worried and decided that blood work was the best course of action. Although he had only vomited 3 times between 2am and 7am Monday morning we were still concerned that it might be a virus of some sort and wanted to get his numbers checked.

We got to the lab and there were people ahead of us so we settled in to the waiting room to wait our turn. Levi was being silly!

 Finally it was out turn. Levi went right in to get his band-aid. He found the Blaze box again and asked me to find blaze this time (last week he had the blaze box and the band-aid I gave him was Crusher and Pickle instead of Blaze and he wasn't very happy!). This time I held them up to the light and was lucky enough to find Blaze. He climbed in the chair to open the band-aid all by himself.

 The draw went well although Levi did tell P his normal complaint of "I don't like that pokey thing!" but otherwise he set well and did a good job! He headed to the treasure box and found a container of silly putty! He was pretty excited about that. Then we headed out and found a donut! :)

Then we were off to school!

I got to work and was wondering why Jay hadn't gotten me counts yet. I kept bugging him about why he wasn't checking the fax machine. Of course he was super busy at work and was getting annoyed at me for bugging him constantly. When numbers hadn't come in at 11:30 he called the lab and the person he got wanted nothing to do with him and wouldn't talk to him just sent him to medical records. Around 12:30 he called again. He got a different person at the lab who was all like "oh yea, Levi, we know him" but still wouldn't even discuss the fax and again forwarded him to medical records. So frustrating. Around 1:00 I started calling the house and listening to the answering machine, the old school method of getting results. Thankfully the results came in early afternoon from Dr. K so they were pretty detailed. His counts were 313! A great number with what we had yesterday! Very happy! Now we will just need to track down the full record from medical records next week so that we can put it in our records. Very frustrating!

Next plan: Blood work again on Friday to have a baseline before infusion next Tuesday!

August 10 - Blood Work

August 10 - Blood Work

We were back on our regular scheduled program so blood work early Thursday morning on the way to school. We got there right on our regular time. There was no line or waiting. Levi picked out his band-aid and headed for the chair. After sitting in the chair for about 30 seconds he said he had to pee and ran into the bathroom! He is getting so much better at telling us. Although he only had a few drops he was successful (though he really wanted to pee in the cup... why couldn't he have wanted to do that when he was in the hospital last week?!).

The blood draw went great and we were off to the treasure box!

 He picked a small notepad set with paper, a pencil, and a pencil sharpener. He gave his hugs and we were off to see the fountain!

 Because we hadn't gotten the earliest start in the world he wasn't going to make it to school for 8:25 (the latest he can make it to eat breakfast) so he got a donut (that and I am a pushover!) He was pretty happy. And the donut lady gave him a penny for the fountain! He always loves getting to make a wish! Then we were on our way to school!

It wasn't crazy long before counts came in. His count was 315! An amazing number! So glad that his numbers are still going up. After last week I need to see some good counts!!

Next Plan: Regular scheduled program of blood work next Thursday!

August 7 - Blood Work

August 7 - Blood Work

Over the weekend Levi started to bruise and I was very concerned with what his counts had done. The bruises were contained to his arms and legs but were definitely appearing seemingly out of nowhere. His cold and cough has also gotten worse! I was very worried going into this blood work with what we were going to encounter.

We got to the lab bright and early, thanks to someone not sleeping in! And there was a line again. Levi has gotten spoiled with not having to wait lately so the waiting part has been tough. But we passed the time by playing connect the dots toddler and taking selfies.

 Once we got inside the draw went much better then I expected. Levi took forever to pick his band-aid but once he finally settled on one he wanted to sit on my lap in the chair and then he was good. He held his little arm out just fine and the draw went great. P had a nurse trainer with her and I think she was amazed at how well Levi did (thankfully she was there today and not last week!)

After the draw Levi jumped down and headed to the treasure box. He has recently gotten a mini Thomas track at Day out with Thomas and in the box he found a Mini Mystery Train. He was so excited! Then we headed out to get a donut. It's a tradition if it's not a normal Thursday blood work (of course he gets plenty of donuts on Thursday's too). He always gets a donut at a non scheduled blood work. He was so polite to the "Donut Lady" and said his please and thank yous without being prompted. So proud of him!

Then I rushed him to preschool. Technically he has to be to school for 8:25 if he wants to eat breakfast, they make a medical exception for him on Thursdays, but since I hadn't called ahead for today I didn't know if they would. We walked in the class room at 8:27 and they had no problem getting him what he needed! A full big glass of milk to wash down his donut!! But had I wanted him to fully eat they would have gotten him a whole plate! I love his preschool! It's such a better environment then his nursery school was.

Counts came in very soon after. His platelet count is 265! YAY!!! The bruising is probably just residual from when his counts dropped so low, and it is just now coming to the surface!! We are good!! I am so glad that we have this reaction behind us!!

Next steps: Back to the regular scheduled program! Blood Work on Thursday!

August 3 - Blood Work

August 3 - Blood Work

Levi woke up nice and early in his own bed! We lounged at home for a little bit to make sure that his morning was going to go ok and then got ready for preschool. The doctors had asked us to do his blood work as late in the day as possible to try to give his body the most chance it could, so Levi headed off to school. Grammie was hanging at our house for the day in case we needed to jet off to Lebanon again tonight. If we are in the clear then we will be taking her home tonight so she can babysit her other grandkids tomorrow, if we need her to go to Lebanon then she will be going there.

I picked Levi up from school at 12:20 (we didn't want him going down for nap and then having to be woken up) and we headed over to the lab. Since the time was different then normal there was a bit of a wait, and none of the people who were there were the friendly people who know Levi! We settled in to wait!

 Once we got inside Levi took a softy soft "for me to take home" and was rubbing it. He also insisted on sitting by himself. I filled P in a little on our week so that she would know we might have a few more issues today then some days.

 The blood draw did not go well. Levi told P "I don't like that pokey thing" and locked his arm against his chest so tight and hugged it with the other one. Eventually we got him to put his arm out and she got the draw done but it was not without screams! That is not like him!

He headed over to the treasure box. He picked out a green dinosaur to "snuggle with"! We have (or had) named him snugglesaurus (it's a super cute book, look it up if you have never read it before) and he was very happy to snuggle with him the whole time we drove home.

We drove slowly home as I was waiting for results to come in and we stopped and bought slushies too! Once we got home we played with Grammie for a few and worked on the laundry waiting for results. An hour after the draw had been done we still didn't have results. I made Jay call the lab (it's a stat order, an hour is plenty of time to get the results) and get the number. Levi's platelet count is 185!!! YAY!!! So glad it's gone up. No need for an infusion with numbers like that!! This ordeal is slowly getting behind us!!

Next plan: Blood work again on Monday to make sure things are still going ok.