December 18 - Blood Work

December 18 - Blood Work

Happy Monday!! We got to blood work and there was no line no waiting. I like this whole no waiting thing! Levi went right in and got his band-aid, and then climbed up into the chair to open it.

After how bad Thursday's draw went with his vein, P and I have made the decision to go to his left arm instead of his right for a few months. We think that the scar tissue will break up if his arm is given a break. Levi wasn't overly excited by that until we told him that meant he got to keep his right hand to play on the tablet! Then he was happy.

P got set up on the other side to do the draw and it didn't go well. She put the needle in and couldn't find the vein. She had to dig around to find it. Levi even said "ouchey!" Once she found the vein it didn't want to give blood and even stopped several times. We were trying to keep Levi as still as possible but he isn't a very still child. The needle went thru the vein and stopped giving blood. P said she was going to pull it back slowly and hope that it caught again, she got it to give some more but not enough before it popped out of the vein completely. P looked heartbroken when she looked at the tube and it didn't have enough blood in it to send to the lab. She actually said "Well that was a failure! We are never doing that again!" and then looked at Levi who was happily playing on the table and said "I have to do your other arm buddy, I didn't get enough". He was like "Ok". Then she said that he could pick two toys from the treasure box since she had to poke him twice and he said "nah, thats ok. I only need one" What a sweet kid. The right arm went as well as it's been going. Easyish stick, but still harder to find the vein the it used to be and to stick it.

Once she had enough and was one Levi was off to the treasure box. He has been eyeing these stars that play twinkle twinkle little star for almost a month now. Originally there had been 3 of them. Now down to just 1. He made the choice and thats what he took. I asked if he was going to give P hugs today and he said "Nope!" so I said "high fives" and he said "nope. nothing today. maybe next time!" P looked sad, but then said, I get it, I stuck him twice, he's not happy with me!

As we were heading out she asked if he could have a mini cupcake. I think she wanted to do anything she could to make him feel better. I said sure and he picked a chocolate one. We headed over to the cafe as the Donut Lady had wanted to take a picture. Levi set at one of the tables to eat his cupcake while I waited in line.

Once we got to the front of the line he ordered his donut! The Donut Lady was sad, as she had forgotten the bag. I told her we would be back on Thursday. What's one more donut?! We got his donut and headed to the car. He was excited to eat it!

When we got to school I did tell Levi that if his arm hurt he needed to tell his teachers to that they could ice it to hopefully keep the bruising down, and did tell his teachers that he had had a rough morning. But he had a great day at school. And neither of his arms bruised at all! That's what high platelets will do.

And are they ever high. They actually went up between Thursday and Today. His counts are now at 438!! And his white blood cell count has gone down. Still slightly high, but closer to in range now. WOO HOO! Looks like we will have a great Christmas after all.

Next steps: Blood work again on Thursday as one more check before the Holidays!!! Hope everything stays good. I need him healthy to travel and enjoy Christmas!