Bryan

About 2 weeks ago I noticed that Bryan had a lot of bruises on his legs and one on his side. He said that he play fights at school all the time so Derek talked to the school about it. We figured they had to be play fighting really hard in order for him to get bruises like that. I started asking Bryan every few days what he did at recess to make sure they weren’t play fighting anymore.

On Monday after dinner, Bryan told me he had little red spots on his skin. I told him it was probably just eczema and told him to take a shower and then I would look at it and he could put lotion on. He had the spots all over his feet, legs, stomach and back. He also had a whole lot more bruises that I hadn’t seen before. So I asked him if he had been play fighting at school lately. He said no.

After he went to bed, I looked up bruising and red spots online and decided that he needed to go to the doctor. I made an appointment Tuesday for him to be seen on Friday. On Tuesday night I saw a few more bruises on Bryan so I took some pictures and emailed them to Rachelle to show Lew, my father in law once removed(he he). He’s some kind of doctor so I asked him if those red spots were petechiae which was something I read about online. He emailed me back and told me that that it did look like petechiae to him and he thought that Bryan probably has ITP(Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura). He explained it a little bit to me and told me he should get a CBC and be started on treatment as soon as possible.

On Wednesday morning, Derek saw more bruises on Bryan so I called the doctor and asked if they could see him that day. Derek took him in and the doctor agreed that he probably has ITP and sent him to get a CBC. We got the results back about 3 hours later and the doctor called and said he needs to go to the hospital right away for a platelet transfusion. His platelet count was at 2,000. The normal range is 150,000-450,000. So that’s why he was bruising everywhere.

While Derek and Bryan were on their way to the hospital, the doctor called again and said that he just talked to a blood specialist in Oakland and she didn’t want him to have the platelet transfusion so he told him to just come to the office instead.

He told Derek that he thought it was ITP but because they weren’t certain, the blood specialist didn’t want him to have the transfusion and she would fly out here by next Tuesday to see Bryan.

The doctor told Derek that Bryan would need another CBC on Monday. He said that Bryan needs to take it easy and be very careful so he doesn’t keep bruising. He pretty much gets bruises or red spots from anything touching him. The doctor stressed that anything on his head or stomach is cause for concern and to call him right away if he bumps his head or anything happens to either of those places.

Bryan ended up getting a bruise on his forehead that evening and then a little while later, we noticed that it had started swelling. He started getting ready for bed and then his nose started bleeding. It stopped after 10-15 minutes and then about 15 minutes later, it started again. Derek called the doctor because of the nose bleeds and the bump on his forehead and the doctor said he needs to go to the emergency room

When we got there, the on-call doctor had already talked to our doctor and they wanted to do another CBC and a cat scan. Poor Bryan had to get poked 3 times to get his blood!! The CAT scan came back negative for anything but we were still waiting on the CBC results. So they admitted him to the hospital.

The doctors think it’s ITP but they’re a little thrown off because his white blood cell count is low. And that’s not normal with ITP. They started treating him for ITP this morning with an iv ig and when he goes through 3 bottles of the medication, they’ll wait a few hours and then do another CBC. If his platelet count has gone up then he should be able to go home.

So right now we’re just waiting on that. Bryan is doing a lot better today than he was yesterday and he was happy the whole time we were there visiting him this morning. I really hope that the medicine works and he gets to come home soon! I will post again when I know more.