Bloody Business

We just returned from a trip to Albuquerque to the University of New Mexico Children’s Hospital.  David, as many of you know, is severely anemic and has been since birth.  After some testing and discussion in his early years, we decided to take a “wait and see” approach during which we’d try to implement good nutrition and care.  David’s 10 yrs old now and a recent blood test showed his various levels to be dropping.  For instance, his hemoglobin count was 4.1.  You can Google “CBC and hemoglobin” to find out just how low this is, but it’s basically about 1/3 of what it should be.  He also recently fell off the height/growth chart- he’d been holding right around the 3% mark, but dropped below that.  It’s a minor miracle that he’s able to function as well as he does.

So, it seems like it’s time now to get aggressive in treatment.  We went back to the same set of doctors and spent a good hour discussion strategy.  Our first need is to find out where his blood is failing- is it the blood itself or is the spleen destroying his cells?  In order to bolster him and get his CBC up, we decided to start a blood infusion program.  That should give him some good blood to work with and maybe allow some growth.  While he’s given periodic infusions, we’ll also be looking at his bone marrow, to see if there’s a problem there.  It’s possible that a bone marrow replacement program will produce some good results.  At this point, though, we just don’t know.

The area where we got the infusion is also where the cancer kids get their chemo.  There were 2 very young children getting "ports" changed and, based on their screaming, it didn't seem very pleasant.  Several older kids were getting chemo.  The nurses were very nice and really tried to make the kids comfortable- I'm convinced they've gotta be 8/10ths angels to work in that environment.  As for us, I’m sure we’ll be making some trips up and down I-25 over the next several months, years, or whatever.

A neat rainbow, ending right on our house!

The Patient trying to look morose

A hint of a smile creeps in

His true attitude takes over

Hooked up to the IV, getting blood

The view from the IV room

Playing video games.  The hospital does their best to make the kids comfortable