First Week of Life Drama!

Ok people, I have just now gotten to a point where I can actually sit down and write this. We had some drama just a mere 3 days after Jackson was born.
Jackson was obviously born on Monday, he then had his circumcision done the following Wednesday. One of the Dr.'s in my Pediatricians office came by to look at Jackson on Thursday and mentioned to me that his circumcision looked a little bloodier than normal. He seemed very concerned, but told me to just keep an eye on it and let them know if it looked any different. Being that I had Makayla first and never seen that kind of thing with a boy, I didn't exactly know what it was supposed to look like anyway. Oh well. So we get discharged on Thursday afternoon, but before they would let me go, they said they needed a platelet count on me. So the nurse came back and said it had to be 90,000 for me to go home and that I was at 88,000. She called my OB, and she said that was an acceptable level and they let me go. (*this is important later...)

So we go home and everything was fine, but Jackson's privates were still bleeding a lot. They had told me to put a piece of gauze with Vaseline on it around the area after every diaper change. But the blood would soak through the back of the gauze. So Phil and I were concerned and called my Pediatrician on Friday afternoon. He said to come in Saturday morning and they would take a look. So we go the next morning and my Dr. was out, but one of the other Dr.'s took a look and said it looked really bad. She then sent us STRAIGHT to the Tx. Children's ER.

Of course at this point, I am a complete wreck, crying hysterically. We get to Tx. Children's and the ER docs said it did look bad, and they took some blood for some initial work up. When they came back, they said Jackson's platelet level was at 16,000 which is EXTREMELY low. (Normal is 150,000) They said we needed to be admitted immediately to the Level 3 NICU and he would definitely need a platelet transfusion to get his levels up. *This is when I remembered my issue with my low platelet count at the hospital at the time of discharge. I told the ER doc and he said that was very important and it sent up some red flags about some possible connections and what could be going on.

So we go up to the NICU, and they started the transfusion. They then took blood every few hours to check his platelet count. At the first draw, his platelet count had gone up to 83,000. So they were encouraged by that. But at the second draw, it went way back down to the 30,000 range. In a way, this was good, because it pointed toward a more definite diagnosis. So because his platelet count went back down, they then gave him an IV drug of Immunoglobulin which tells your body to stop eating up it's own platelets. At the next blood draw, his levels had gone up to 40,000 range, which indicated that it was working and his body was starting to make more platelets.

They waited until this morning to draw more blood because apparently it takes a while for your body to make more and his levels this morning were at 76,000!!! The Hematologist (blood Dr.) was VERY excited and encouraged and said he was on his way to recovery!! The condition he is now diagnosed with is called ITP- Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura. When he was in utero, my body didn't like his platelets and since we share a little blood, my antibodies started attacking his platelets. So when he came out, some of my antibodies were still in his blood and continued to attack. The immunoglobulin they gave him told his body to stop attacking. This also accounted for my low platelet count and they believe I may have chronic ITP.

So he was doing very well and they drew another blood sample Tuesday morning at 6am and the results were great! The platelets were still in the 70,000's and the Hematologist cleared us for discharge! Yeah!! We got to go home and it felt great!

But what is very scary is that I asked what would have happened if we never did see the Pediatrician and left this alone, the Hematologist said he would have started to bleed internally and by the time his blood started to come out of his nose, ears etc. it would have been too late and he would have bled out and died!!!!!! SCARY!!!

We have a follow-up appointment next week with the Hematologist to do another platelet count on Jackson and figure out what's going on with me. I was able to go get a anti-body anti-platelet test at my OB's this past Monday, so we should know the results when we go to this next appointment.

So the immediate danger is over and Jackson should not have any problems in the future, thank goodness! We thank everyone who prayed for us, we definitely felt that his fast healing was due to that!

Here are some pics from his stay in the NICU... not exactly how I pictured his first week of life.