Nate's Blood and My Gut

I published the last post and started to head to bed when I heard a panicked, "Mommy!" coming from Nate's room. I ran down the hall, not sure what I would find, to see my sweet, little boy standing at his doorway in his one piece monster sleeper jammies and blood covering his entire face. I yelled for Chris and grabbed a baby wipe to squeeze his nose as I saw that there were several pools of blood on his pillow and bed. Chris and I took turns squeezing and cleaning. These nose bleeds are truly one of the things I hate most about this treatment...because Nate hates them too. He screams, hits, kicks, cries and begs us to stop the entire time were squeezing his nose. Some nose bleeds stop quicker than others. So, I usually start off with a 2 minute hold, then go to a 5 minute, then a 10 minute if the previous two don't work. If the 10 minute hold doesn't work, we're supposed to call the doctor and probably bring him in. It was 3am and we knew if we had to bring him to the ER, we would both have to go (one to drive and one to hold his nose) and we would have to call someone to sit with Wes and Ellie. So, I think we tried a couple 10 minute holds before we gave up and called the on call doctor. She said to try holding an ice pack to his nose while squeezing it, but if it didn't stop in the next few minutes, to go to the ER to be admitted for platelets. We had an appointment at the clinic for platelets in less than 7 hours...we just had to get this thing to stop for 7 hours. We finally, after about an hour and a half from start to finish, got it to stop and tucked Nate into his freshly cleaned bed. Literally 3 minutes later, just as I was sitting down on my bed, we heard a giant sneeze come from Nate's room. I booked it down the hall again to find Nate with a GIANT blood clot on his face. He said, "Mommy, I sneezed a strawberry!". I sat him up and the blood started flowing again. We decided to squeeze his nose with an ice pack for another 10 minutes and if it didn't work to call my mom to sit with Wes an Ellie so we could head to the ER. It didn't stop.

Chris and I took turns squeezing and getting dressed and ready to go while we waited for my mom. I was sitting at the kitchen table putting my shoes on when Nate came toddling down the hall (have I mentioned how stinking cute he is in those one piece jammies?!?!)...with no nose bleed! My mom got there and we all sat around the kitchen table, at 3:30am, and stared at Nate's nose while he went through the Target toy catalog and showed us all the things that Santa is going to bring him. We watched him for about 20 minutes and decided to send my mom home and make one more attempt at getting through the night without another nose bleed. Thankfully, we did.

Nate and I headed to the clinic where we found out that his platelets, hemoglobin, and ANC had all tanked over the weekend, but you would've never known it by looking at him. His platelets had been 55 on Friday (normal is 150-400, but they don't usually transfuse until they get to about 10-20), Monday they were 9. So, we were at clinic all day long on Monday for Nate to get platelets and blood...it's a very long process, and the doctor said he didn't need to see Nate for a week, on this coming Monday. Now, this sounds awesome in theory but I was kind of nervous about going the through the weekend without knowing what any of his numbers were doing. I followed my gut this time and made the appointment for Thursday.

We went to clinic on Thursday and his hemoglobin and ANC were great, but his platelets had only come up to 12! He needed more platelets. I'm very thankful that I followed my Mommy gut and I have definitely learned not to second guess it. If we had waited until Monday to come in, Nate certainly would have had another bad nose bleed. They are truly horrible and we all want to avoid one at all costs.

Here are some facts about blood, platelets and donation that you may not know (I didn't, before Nate's diagnosis):
1. Platelets are yellow
2. Someone needs blood every two seconds.
3. Only 37 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood – less than 10 percent do annually.
4. One unit of blood can be separated into several components: red blood cells, plasma, platelets and cryoprecipitate.
5. Transfused platelets only last 2 to 3 days. Many cancer patients must get these transfusions every couple days until their body starts to make them again.
6. Donated platelets can only be stored for 5 days.
7. Children being treated for cancer, premature infants and children having heart surgery need blood and platelets from donors of all types, especially type O.
8. Blood centers often run short of types O and B red blood cells (Nate is O negative).
9. Shortages of all blood types happen during the summer and winter holidays.
10. If all blood donors gave three times a year, blood shortages would be a rare event.

I always knew that donating blood was a "good thing to do" and I've donated a few times in my life, but I never realized how truly important it is. Sometime soon, when things slow down (ha!) I would like to coordinate a blood drive in honor of Nate's fight. I hope you'll all help me with that. In the mean time though, there are lots of places to donate. Check out unitedbloodservices.org. Also, consider donating platelets. You can donate platelets more often than blood because they take out the platelets and put your blood back.

Ok, off my soapbox for now. Nate continues to do and be incredible! He has his appetite back and Thursday he had 3 waffle for breakfast and ate 2 lunches (one at the clinic and one with Mommy, Grandma and Linde after clinic). He's packing on the weight so he can be big and strong for surgery. He's smart and funny and so, so totally cute even when he's being naughty (which is a lot of the time). I sort of feel like I'm on a natural high all the time right now with my family home and happy. It just doesn't get any better!