Another Transfusion

As our friend gave us a heads up that the clinic may be closed today due to MLK day I called Thursday and to my relief found out that the clinic was indeed open today. Our appointment was at 10am. It wasn't until this morning that I noticed unusual bruising on Gracie's legs and arms and petechia (little red spots) on her face and in her mouth. These are tell tale signs of low platelets. They have again changed clinic policy making it easier to get Gracie's blood tests done again. Hallelujah.  Her counts were:

TWC -  4.25

HgB - 9.3

ANC - 560

Platelets - 18

So she did get her platelets today. We'll be back again in a couple days for more platelets I'm sure, perhaps for some blood too but her HgB looks pretty good right now. Of course she isn't going to nadir (reach her lowest point) until Friday or Saturday or Sunday so who knows what else is coming. With that in consideration it's a little worrisome that her ANC is so low already.Last month her ANC stayed in the 800's until Friday when it dropped to 320 (a drop of over 500) in less than 24 hours. It makes me want to check counts on a daily basis! And of course I just had to start getting a sore throat last night.  Her sister asked if she could have a friend over tomorrow. That was an emphatic NO. This week no friends are allowed until Gracie's counts start going up again. It must be hard having a sibling with cancer. It has such an impact on everyone in the family. Grace's transfusion ran well without complications, but this is the second time we've been there when someone else has had a reaction. We hope to keep avoiding that little treat, although it's always a risk you take when you're infusing blood products (or chemo for that matter).  It's a good thing the nurses are so good as they are right on top of things if someone even hints at having a reaction to what is being infused. 

Today as it was a day off school we took all 4 of our children with us to the clinic. Our oldest had wanted to go to the clinic for quite some time as she keeps hearing reports of how fun it is but she's never got to go before. Thank heaven's things ran fairly smoothly. The girls played in the craft room for a good portion of time where they got to help one of the volunteers make patches to go on a patchwork quilt that the cancer kids are assembling. It looks like it will be a really neat quilt. They had the world's best mac and cheese in stock (courtesy of A Trip to Bountiful Bakery) and they also were able to have some Amy's ice cream (good stuff, my favourite is Mexican Vanilla). Our day at the clinic lasted 4 hours which is really good considering how long we've had to stay there in the past. Waiting always takes the most time. I'm glad the girls had so much fun. Considering it was a cancer clinic it was a relatively "fun" way to spend the day. Although next MLK day we hope to be on a hike instead with a totally cancer free family.

Stephanie