belated update

Tuesday we came back for another blood check. He was at 2,000. So they decided to put him on IVIG. They gave us the option of coming back today to have the meds put in first thing this morning, or to stay overnight on Wednesday. King J thought it would be better to stay overnight, so we did.

Almost 24 hours of IVIG and saline later, his numbers had jumped to a remarkable... 3,000. The drs talked for a while and decided to give him a second dose of IVIG today, as sometimes it takes 2 rounds of it to determine whether it might actually be of use. The next step is steroids (Prednisone.) The side effects are a little scary so I'm really hoping we can avoid it. I don't need my 2 year old gaining huge amounts of weight because his medicine is so toxic to his body. Because a bone marrow biopsy would be necessary if we went on the predisone, they decided to ahead and schedule the procedure as a "just in case." I don't like "just in case," but I'll risk it this once.

So, he's officially been put on NPO (nothing by mouth) from midnight until after the biopsy. They're going to check his platelets again first thing in the morning (which probably means 7am sharp, like it was today) and then do the bone marrow at 11. It shouldn't be hard to keep food away from him tomorrow; he wasn't very interested in it today. I think he just didn't feel good at all, because he fell asleep walking around with us by 9:15.

The other boys are visiting their grandma since Dad works overnight. They are having fun with puppies, but D said he really wanted to spend the night here with me and A. He gets very concerned for A's health.

While we were walking around the halls, we saw a little boy in a crib-bed who was very upset. He was in a no-contact room, so I guess that's why no one was there with him. Wouldn't parents be able to stay with a face mask, though? His IV machine was beeping, he was beating his arm on his head like A does, and it sounded like he was crying as hard as he could, but he was very hoarse. He seemed very sleepy too. I wanted to cry looking at him. There weren't any nurses at our nurse station, so J walked to the other end to let them know he was in distress and his machine was beeping. The nurse got his machine fixed and got him to stop crying, but he kept beating his head anyway. I think it was from being tired and lonely.