Today, was 10 days post Chemo for Jaidyn. Day 10 is normally the worst. Meaning your counts are usually the lowest which leads to possible admission.
Jaidyn is in the last "intense phase" of her 2 year treatment before we start the year and a half of "Maintenance" which is once a month Chemo. This last phase where she got the Ara-C four days in a row, usually lands kids in the hospital around day 10. Luckily we were already going in today for follow up blood work, to check her counts and transfuse if necessary.
Last Friday Jaidyn received a platelet transfusion for the first time. Let me just add that normally when kids are diagnosed with Leukemia, a tell tale sign is bruising. Caused by low platelets. Another sign of low platelets is called petechia. Petechia is tiny little red dots that appear on the skin. Jaidyn never showed any of those signs when she was diagnosed. Nor has she shown any, almost the whole time through treatment. Her platelets have always stayed well in the hundreds. At some points even being over 500. A transfusion only happens when its under 10.
Except things changed last week. She fell and cut her knee. No big deal, happens all the time. But by the time I picked her up (5 seconds later) she had already bled through her jeans. So I rolled up her jeans to see what was going on, there was blood dripping down her leg, all coming from a tiny little cut. I cleaned away the blood, and luckily due to Jaidyn's current obsession with band aids I had some in the car. By the time we got home she had bled right through it. Not putting too much concern towards it we changed it and she went to bed.
The next morning we were heading to the clinic for a blood count check anyway, which was kind of perfect timing. The bleeding had stopped over night but started again on the way in and she had bled through her tights. I also noticed her knee was purple all around this tiny cut. She also had a giant blue bruise on her foot. Clearly her platelets were low for the first time. Blood work was done and yes that was the case. Her hemoglobin was still normal but her platelets were 28. Since it was Friday and they didn't want us to have to come in over the weekend, they decided to transfuse at 28 instead of waiting till it got down to 10.
Thankfully platelets only take an hour, but are a funky yellow colour and it freaked me out a bit at first.
Just enough time to play dress up, do some arts and crafts and some contraction work. After that we were free to go.
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| Platelets, Mermaid and Construction Worker. She does it all. |
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| Drill to the eye |
So back to my current topic. Today was day 10. Knowing she would probably have really low counts and possibly might have to stay today, I decided to be prepared, unlike most of the days we ended up staying for 8 or 10 hours. So I packed a bag for the clinic, filled with entertainment for myself and Jaidyn (even though they have every toy/electronic/movie available to them in the clinic), along with lunch and some paper work I needed to do. I also packed a couple days worth of clothes for her and myself, just incase we were admitted.
I wasn't going to get stuck unprepared like I have a few times before.
So we got there and went upstairs to the lab, got her blood drawn, and went back down to the clinic. Her vitals were done and then we were able to go to the playroom while we waited for her blood counts.
As soon as I started to get my computer out to get some stuff done, Jaidyn's nurse April came over with a big smile on her face and said "well... you guys are good to go!" A little confused, as I looked at her counts and they were pretty much normal. Low of course, but still nothing compared to what they were expecting. Her platelets were over 200, and Hemoglobin was at 100 (normal is 120). So we went into Dr. Rod's office to have our usual chat about how things were going and as he looked at her counts he again laughed like a couple times before. He couldn't believe that her platelets had gone up over 200. I was under the impression that it was normal since she had just had a platelet transfusion, but I was wrong. The transfusion would have at best brought her up to maybe 50, it was her own bone marrow producing plateets on its on. Jaidyn must have some pretty damn strong bone marrow, chemo can't even stop it.
So that was AWESOME news.
As prepared as I was to be admitted we got to go home. It was kinda ironic but we were ok with it none the less.
On the subject of being able to go home, there has been some concerns about the fact that we have been "out patients" for almost all of Jaidyn's treatment. But now that I think more about those concerns, it's more than enough to be its own post. I will get to that late.
For now, I will enjoy days like today. Crisp sunny days in February where we get to go to the beach and throw rocks, and eat Gelato and enjoy each other's company without the burden of more blood tests, vital signs every couple hours, constant beeping and uncomfortable hospital beds.
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| Throwing rocks |
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| The windup |
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| White Rock, BC |
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| Happy girl, enjoying the sun |
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| Enjoying her Gelato |
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| Blood Orange and Tirimisu |
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