Hematology

At 5 days old, Colton went to see his Pediatrician for a weight check. He weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz. It was great to see that since we’d left the hospital, he had gained 2 oz. and was only 1 oz. away from his original birth weight. She wanted to draw blood in order to check his platelet count. Every time they tried to draw blood from him, it was difficult. They either couldn’t get enough from his heels or when they did get enough, it would start to clot before they could test it. Apparently, it’s pretty common for their blood to clot rather quickly (which didn’t make sense to me because they were afraid he wouldn’t clot if we did his circumcision because of his platelet count, but I’m not a doctor and lots of things don’t make sense to me). So, two nurses had to draw blood from his tiny little arm. It was hard to find a vein, but they did. It was so sad to watch them do this to my tiny baby. The results showed that his platelets were still low, so they scheduled an appointment for us to meet with a Hematologist at Children’s Hospital. They pretty much just tell you when and where and you show up....forget about having your own schedules to work around ;-)

At 8 days old, we took him to the Hematologist. My mom was still in town, so she came with me. I wasn’t allowed to lift anything over 10 pounds yet, so she carried his car seat carrier for me all the way to the back corner of the building. It was quite a walk….especially after having a baby 8 days prior. With Weston, I pretty much got to stay home and recover for a few weeks, but with Colton, we had a lot of appointments so I just had to tough it out. Luckily, I had an easy delivery and a pretty easy recovery, so I was okay. I wonder how some other moms do it after difficult deliveries and C-Sections.

At his appointment, they looked at the results of his blood draw from our Pediatrician’s office. His platelet count was in the 40, 000 range. They like to see it over 150,000. So his was pretty low. The Hematologist told us that to a Pediatrician it looks really low, but to a Hematologist, they don’t get jammed up about it unless it’s below 10,000. Since it had been 3 days since his last blood draw, they wanted to do another one to see if it had improved. Same story as before…they tried his heel and were able to squeeze out enough blood, but when they ran it to the lab to be tested, it clotted. They came back in and said we had to do it again, this time in his arm. They found a vein and he screamed his little head off….poor Colton! They took it to the lab and told us to wait until they received results…it took about 45 minutes or so. When the doctors came in to talk to us, they told us that his platelet count was well over 150,000. Hallelujah! His Thrombocytopenia had resolved itself, which is pretty common in newborns. However, his red blood cell count was kind of high (his blood samples looked really dark red and I remember the nurse commenting on it), which means his blood was a little thicker than normal. They told us that it would probably resolve itself, too, but for the mean time, they didn’t want us to allow him to get too hot. They said to leave the thermostat in the 60’s because if he got hot, his blood would become sludgy and not flow as well. Hunter was pumped about that. They also told us to try to give him 3-4 oz of water a day. Have you ever tried to give a baby water in a bottle? Yeah, that didn’t go well. He would suck for a minute, realize it wasn’t his formula, and then make an awful face and stop. Oh well, we tried our best. Hunter did some research and said the high RBC count wasn’t that big of a deal, so we didn’t allow ourselves to worry. After 3 hours in the Hematology department, we were able to go home. The Hematologist wanted us to do another blood draw in a week to see if it improved, so we went back to the Pediatrician’s office. They sent off the results and everything came back normal. If his RBC count had been high, the Hematologist joked about putting a leech on him to draw out some blood (blood letting), but we didn’t have to do that. Also, children with Down's Syndrome can be at risk for childhood leukemia, so they were glad to see that his White blood cell counts were normal, too. So…blood issues resolved! We were given the go ahead for a circumcision, so I scheduled that bad boy and cringed at the thought of having to take my 3 week old in for that surgery. Let’s look at the bright side….at least I didn’t have to deal with a healing circumcision along with his lovely umbilical cord like I did with big brother. We celebrate the little things in our family. Up next, Easter Seals…