Concerns for Carolina. . .

Last week Chad was at Shiloh in New York with a group from our church while I went to visit my lifelong best friend, Karie, in Mississippi. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures from our fun time very soon, but right now I want to update and inform some of you about our precious Carolina Grace.

This weekend I started noticing that Carolina was starting to have more than her normal amount of bruises, of which some were in different spots than normal and some were deeper and more intense than she has ever had before. She hadn't had any falls or "love pats" from her adoring brother to warrant these bruises either. After showing a few friends at church on Sunday, including two of my nurse friends her bruises, they all agreed and confirmed my inner Mommy suspicion that we should definitely take her to the doctor on Monday. I could read their faces and voices that they were concerned, but I didn't want to really know what they were truly thinking in their minds, ya know?

We were able to get a 12:00 appointment, and Chad, on his first "vacation" day at home, was able to join me at the doctor. From the moment our pediatrician (who we love and trust) walked in, we got the vibe that he, too, was concerned. After checking Carolina out, getting her history of what has been going on, and even getting some information from us, he told us that they were going to draw some blood (three vials worth) and send it off for various testing, including our worst fear, leukemia.

Long story short, Chad and I went back home to wait for the phone call from our doctor that would be the most agonizing hours of our life. I now truly know what it means to pray without ceasing. My eyeballs were on fire and my head racing and pounding at the same time. I even took out the "real" video camera and captured her doing some "tricks" and smiling at the camera before I put her down for her nap. The fear that the phone call from our doctor to summon us immediately to the Children's Hospital for treatment was there. Very surreal. Please God, don't let our baby have the C word.

Finally at about 3:45 or 4:00, our doctor called with some "good" news. It didn't look like leukemia, but something called ITP, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, which was the "best" of the things that they were testing for. Her platelet count was low, extremely low - 11,000. Normal platelet counts are around 150,000 to 400,000. Yikes - they are LOW. Our pediatrician, Dr. G. had already talked with the hematology clinic at the Children's Hospital and they too, thought it was ITP from the labs and the symptoms. He had made us an appointment for 9:00 this morning.

We had several things to watch for in case we needed to take her to the ER and admit her, but thankfully none of those things happened and she rested peacefully.

This morning, after three hours of waiting and meeting with the doctors, they decided to treat her with an IVIG, which basically introduces antibodies into her system to try to get her body to attack those antibodies instead of her platelets, causing her platelets to increase. They usually don't do this for older children, just tell them to be careful and let the levels rise on their own. But, since she is only thirteen months old and can't understand or be physically able to "be careful" they gave her this treatment.

They also drew some more blood and did further testing. At about 6:15 tonight we heard from the hematologist that her blood looks good, except for a very low platelet count. She thinks this is a classic ITP case, which should resolve itself eventually. We are very thankful that it is the "best" thing considering what it could be. . . and thankful that it doesn't appear to be a genetic condition. (Chad has a low platelet count that has to be monitored every three months) Crazy, huh?

Here is Chad and Carolina in the waiting room today. Sister was busy walking the clinic for almost the entire three hours that were spent waiting. She was a trooper, missing her morning nap, having very little to entertain her and having all these strangers poking, prodding, and holding her down.
The first fifteen minutes of her IV, she screamed, squirmed, and basically was impossible to hold and calm down. She finally calmed down and fell asleep in my arms as you can see here.

She woke up about an hour later, and chowed down on the Chik-fil-A nuggets that Gran-D and Papa J had brought up to us. Chad had pinched up EIGHT nuggets and she was grabbing fistfuls and cramming it into her mouth. We were laughing! However, about half way through her treatment, (it was supposed to last about FOUR hours), her IV became infiltrated and she let us know about it! She started screaming because it had come out of her vein and was going into her arm. They were about to give her another IV (and poke my poor baby again), but the hematologist decided that the half dose would be sufficient.

We go back on Thursday to get her blood drawn to see if the treatment did indeed make her platelet levels rise and confirm that it is ITP. We will definitely have to get her blood drawn every week for a while and then monthly to make sure everything is okay. We're not sure if she will need any other treatment at this point or not.

Here's a shot of where they drew blood yesterday. :(

This shot is just an example of one part of her body (probably the worst) that caused us to go to the doctor. She did not have any major falls to cause these bruises.

And look at that BELLY after a big meal! :)

For those of you who have known about our sweet Carolina and have sent e-mails and called us, and most importantly prayed for us and our baby girl, thank you. It is amazing the peace that we have felt and the prayers that have surrounded us since we have e-mailed you and petitioned your prayers. Please keep praying for her that her levels will go up and that she won't be in the "danger zone" any more. Pray that we can keep her from hurting herself until her levels go up (she was trying to climb up on the train table and the dishwasher tonight) and that Lawton will continue to be as sweet as he has been the past two days. Pray that it is a "typical" ITP case - which can be cured.

We are so thankful that this does not appear to be worse, especially cancer. Walking into the clinic at the hospital today, there were so many familiar families to the nurses. I prayed that we would not be familiar to them and prayed for those sweet families and children for whom the clinic had become familiar. Our God is faithful and we praise Him!

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy post and for your prayers and concern for our sweet Carolina!