Hemolization & Week Off!

Colton's doctors let him have the week off, so no pokes!  Hooray!  Although Colton still asks daily if he can go to the hospital....goofball!

Colton's stool test came back negative for blood, which means he does not have internal bleeding. We will take that as good news :-)  Given those results, Colton's doctors suspect he has low hemoglobin because his body is producing antibodies that continue to hemolyze (destroy) his red blood cells (RBC's) through an autoimmune process.  However, when you hemolyze your cells, a byproduct is a release of bilirubin.  The doctors are a bit perplexed why Colton's bilirubin has remained normal and is not elevated. 

To make things more complex, another indicator of hemolization is low haptoglobin (a protein), which they have seen drop significantly, indicating hemolysis...a complete contradiction to the bilirubin.  In addition, his reticulocyte count (immature red blood cells) is 9x normal, so his body is producing new RBC's at a very high rate to compensate for the loss. The doctors just don't know where the loss is occurring yet.

The doctors were able to determine Colton has low iron in his RBC's, so we have started an iron supplement to help maintain good healthy cells.

Colton had high blood pressure the past few times he was tested.  He went in last Friday to have it checked.

 

Enjoying his week off playing with his brother!