The Waiting Continues: March 26th Clinic Visit

It seemed that Wednesday's clinic visit was all positive, although Dan and I had completely different emotions and takes on it.  The doctors are still playing the watchful waiting game in hopes that Colton's body will recover on its own.  They did set limits on when they will treat Colton: if platelets drop below 20 and if ANC stays at 100-200 for a period of time.  The doctors are thinking Colton may be losing red blood cells from bleeding as opposed to antibodies.  They are running several panels to figure out if that is the case.

I felt extremely frustrated after clinic because we still have no answers and no plan. It's stressful living in limbo. Dan, on the other hand, thought the results were ok and was fine with waiting.  While we don't want to treat unless we have to, it feels like we are doing nothing to fix the problem.  This is typical with autoimmune disorders.

Colton had his first poke by Ryan, our favorite phlebotomist, but when we met with the doctors they wanted to run more tests.  So Colton was poked again.  The second one clotted, so he had be poked a third time :(

The doctors took Dan with them to look at Colton's blood smear. They said he was the first person they have ever taken back with them, but that he had earned it because he has learned so much about it. I guess all his research is paying off!

 

Stats From Today's Visit:

• White Blood Count (WBC) - 3.8 (normal range is 6.0 to 17.0)
• Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) - .5 (normal range is above 1.5)
• Platelets - 62 (normal range is 150 to 700)
• Hemoglobin (HGB) - 9.8 (normal range is 11.5 to 13.5)
• Hematocrit (HCT) - 30.0 (normal range is 34.0 to 40.0)
• Red Blood Count (RBC) - 3.53 (normal range is 3.9 to 5.3)
• Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) - 86.1 (normal range is 75.0 to 87.0)

First poke!

 

All the blood tests the doctors ran. He looks a little too happy about having to get poked again!

 

Showing off his other two pokes (vein pokes)!