July 5 - Blood Work

July 5 - Blood Work

Happy Thursday!!! Hope everyone had a great Independence Day! We spent the day as a family, berry picking in the morning, then doing some packing, then several hours joking around in the pool, then more packing, and then headed to the top of a mountain to see several fire works shows. Overall it was a great family day!

We got to the lab today and there was a short wait. Levi settled in to the waiting room and took silly selfies.

When it was his turn he went right into the lab and picked out his band-aid.

Then he climbed up in the chair to get it open all by himself. He wore his back up 4th of July outfit to school today to keep showing his patriotism. (I always buy two holiday outfits in case something happens to the first one, someday I will be able to stop that, but for now I keep buying two!)

Then it was time to play on his tablet while he waited for P to do all the paperwork and get things all set.

The draw itself went super quick and easy as always and then we were off to the treasure chest. He picked another bug catching kit, because today she had one that was green!

Since it was Thursday we were then off to see the donut lady! Levi was very excited that it was donut day!

Then we were off to school! We leave for Camp Sunshine on Sunday, so we were hoping that counts would come back good today. If questionable we would have to make the choice of what to do. Thankfully counts came back quick today and were faxed before I got to work again. His count is 209!! So still very good!! Woo Hoo! I can go into Camp not having to worry about Levi or his counts. :)

Next plan: Camp next week, so no blood work until late afternoon on Friday on our way home! Hope everyone has a great week, I know we will!

July 2 - Blood Work

July 2 - Blood Work

Happy Monday everyone!!! We got to the lab and there was a slight wait. So we settled into the waiting room for our traditional waiting room selfies.

Levi was being a goofball as per usual!

At this point of the morning I was not aware that the labs had come in late Friday night as Jay hadn't messaged me that they were on his desk, so I told P that they had never come in. She was flabbergasted and frustrated!! She was immediately on her phone and called her boss, T. As soon as P said that it was Levi who hadn't gotten his counts T was incredibly upset as well and said that she would look into it immediately. She could quickly see that for some reason his labs had gone through the regular track instead of the stat track even though they were clearly marked stat, and she could see that they were not correctly reported out. She apologized (she was on speaker phone while P did the paperwork for today) more times then I can count and said she was on her way to the lab to get to the bottom of it as soon as she hung up. She agreed that it was unacceptable and didn't understand how it could keep happening to the same patient. I am so appreciative that both P and T understand the importance of this stat lab and work together to make sure that things are good for us.

While P and I were dealing with the labs from last week Levi had gotten his band-aid and climbed up into the chair with the tablet to wait. He is so good at doing what he needs to do.

The draw itself went great as always! P is amazing and Levi is so good with her. He was off to the treasure box before we knew it and picked a small toy, and then we were off to school.

Counts came in before I even got to work today, so less then 30 minutes post draw! T clearly was on top of it and monitoring things today. His count was 227. An 84 point drop since Thursday. That's a huge drop. Something we would be much more concerned about if it was from 200-116, but from 311 to 227 we aren't too concerned. We will definitely monitor to make sure he doesn't continue big drops like that, but in the 200's he is still very much in the safe zone and we don't need to worry about things.

Next Plan to check his counts again on Thursday to see how things are. Hope everyone has a great Independence Day!! Levi loves fireworks so I am sure we will have fun doing something cool. We have a lot of packing and moving to do, but we will make sure to spend some family time too since we will all be home.

June 28 - Blood Work

June 28 - Blood Work

Happy Thursday everyone!! Levi had a dentist appointment in the afternoon so to make the most sense of the day we decided to do blood work after his appointment instead of in the morning.

His dentist appointment went great! He was totally relaxing and being a cool dude!

We got to the lab at 2:50! They close at 3:00 so we barely made it. It wasn't more then a minute after we got there that registration closed and P turned the hallway light down so that people knew the lab was closed. Glad we made it in time. They would have drawn Levi even if it was after 3:00 since it's a stat lab, but it's so much easier not to have to deal with that.

We set down to wait as there were several people ahead of us. It was pouring today so Levi was excited to get to wear his green jacket again today. It's been too hot for a jacket lately, but not today!

P saw that we had come in and knew that Levi would be the last draw of the day with a wait of several people so she nicely brought the tablet out for him to play on in the waiting room. He was having a blast playing on it! And it kept him good in the waiting room.

When it was Levi's turn he headed in. Instead of picking out a band-aid he asked for the green dino stuff again. Then he climbed up into the chair and kept playing.

The draw went as great as always! P is amazing! Doesn't matter if it's 6:30 in the morning or 3:00 in the afternoon P has awesome skills. We were off to the treasure box before we knew it. Levi picked a bug catching kit, saying that he had always wanted one of those (news to me!) and that we were going to collect bugs and keep them forever. He grabbed a few stickers today, but didn't want them on his jacket because they would get rained on.

We met Jay at the park and ride to go to Portsmouth. On the way home we stopped at Jay's work to grab the counts off the fax machine and they weren't there! Seriously! It has been hours! Since we weren't overly worried about his counts we decided to wait to call medical records for the next day. The next morning when counts still weren't on the fax machine, Jay called medical records and they sent over their crummy fax. Levi's count was 311. Another drop, but still an amazing number! Monday morning when Jay walked into work the real fax was on his desk. It had come in Friday night at 9:30 PM. That's right more then 30 hours!! after a stat lab we got the results!! Thank goodness his counts were good, because that was ridiculous!!

June 25 - Blood Work

June 25 - Blood Work

Happy Monday everyone!!! I am back to feeling almost normal, and Levi is happy that I have my voice back! So I am back at blood work with Levi.

We got to the lab this morning and there was a bit of a wait, so we settled in to being silly!

Levi can be quite the little goofball when he wants too!!

Finally it was his turn to head into the lab! He got his band-aid and then climbed up in the chair with the tablet.

The draw went amazing as usual! And was over before he knew it. He had picked the teeniest tiniest band-aid ever. Like seriously don't even know why they make them that small! If you were going to measure it the best measurement would probably be millimeters. P took one look at it and said "Hey Levi, how about this way cool green stretchy stuff?" Levi was super excited, it was green and had dino's on it! he was stoked!!! She only has one roll as it was a free sample from a salesman, but Levi was stoked to use it when he could.

Then he was off to the treasure box. He dug around for awhile and then found a green monkey! And that was all the digging he did. I swear that P goes to the dollar store and picks anything green she can! And it totally makes Levi's day!

Levi was super excited about his monkey! He even took him to school for his cuddle buddy for nap time! He loved how long his arms and legs are!

Counts came in a little later at 338! A tiny drop since Friday, but an amazing number still and really a 7 point drop is negligible when you are in the 300's. And his WBC count actually went down since Friday, so we are definitely in the clear of strep throat for Levi!! Woo Hoo!

June 22 - Blood Work

June 22 - Blood Work

Happy Friday!! What a week it has been. We had the wake and funeral for Rita at the beginning of the week, I am sick and after a lengthy ER visit last night I was diagnosed with severe strep. With the meds I am finally starting to feel a little better, but it's been a long week. We skipped blood work on Thursday because with Levi's counts so high and Jay trying to do everything in the mornings with me so sick it just didn't seem to make sense to add that in too, but now that we have a diagnosis of strep which is so contagious and a cutie that has come and cuddled with me every night we want to make sure his WBC isn't going too high.

So Jay and Levi headed off to the lab today. Things are always a little different when Daddy does blood work without me, but it seems like overall it went fairly well!

They stopped and visited the fountain when they first arrived.

Then they settled in to wait for a few minutes. And took the customary waiting selfies!!

Finally they headed in to the lab. The draw went great as usual! Jay just raved about how well Levi did all night. How he just set down and plunked his little arm out. I see it so often that it has kinda become common place for me. but it is neat to be reminded how truly amazing he is at blood work for being 4 years old.

Then they were off to the treasure box. Jay convinced him to pick the outside game that I have been trying to get him to take for weeks. I think he will have a lot of fun with the nets and ball outside.

Counts came in at 345. A drop from Monday, but still an amazing number. And his WBC was fine! So hopefully we can avoid spreading strep to anyone else in the family. No idea how I got it, but thankfully I was diagnosed in enough time to start the antibiotics in enough time to be non-contagious by my niece and nephews party this weekend. Sorry to all those at the wake and funeral, I was definitely contagious then! Hope everyone stays healthy!