Background

We decided to start this for those of you who want to keep update on what's going on with Trenton. We send out occasional e-mails, but we aren't always sure who cares!

So, how this whole adventure started. In December, I noticed Trenton had blood in his poop one day. When it happened again, I called the doctor and she wanted us to come in. While getting him ready, we noticed all these little red dots all over him. Not thinking it was related, we figured we'd ask them about that too. Well, we discovered they are related. After getting checked out at the after-hours clinic (it was a Saturday), we were sent to Children's. That's where we were told he probably has ITP, which basically means he has a low platelet count. At that time, he had about 12,000 platelets (normal is 150,000-450,000). We were given Prednisone for two weeks. That brought his count up to 30,000. After we finished, it went back down to about 10,000.

We started getting Trenton's blood checked typically every week. It was continually very low. He was such a trooper through the whole thing, the nurse taking his blood said he did better than some adults!

One day we got it checked and the doctor called us at 10:30 at night to tell us his count dropped to 3,000. It's never good when a doctor calls you that late. She tells us to watch for fevers or bone pain. How do you ask a 15 month old if he has bone pain?? Well, a few days later he developed a high fever (and had a nasty cough). So, to the ER we went. After many tests, it was discovered that he had RSV (and still crazy low platelets). So we were admitted to the hospital at about 3:30 in the morning.

They wanted to try this other treatment called IVIG. It's an infusion of antibodies that's given through an IV and takes about 4 hours. We did this two days in a row. They said it can take about 5 days to show an increase of platelets, but that it works in 90% of kids. When they finally discharged us (with oxgyen because of the RSV), it still hadn't shown any increase.

When I brought Trenton to get checked the next week at his normal doctor, the doctor called and was excited that his count went up to 18,000! Woo hoo! Well, we discovered later that it really only went up to 10,000. But the doctor was still happy because it was an increase. A week later, the doctor calls again at 10:30 at night (what's with that?) and tells us he was back down to 3,000. That's when we were introduced to the Hematology doctors at Children's. The doc was concerned about why his platelets hadn't gone up after the treatments he's had, so she wanted Trenton to get his bone marrow checked. We did that last week, and all is well. So there's no worry about leukemia or anything. She tells us to wait 3 weeks and then we'd get checked again and then decide what to do.

Well, he had two nasty falls this week and we brought him into the clinic again today. He has this nasty cut on his lip that just won't stop bleeding. They gave us Prednisone again and another med that's supposed to help him with the bleeding. We'll go back next week to check his blood again.

Until this week, Trenton has been feeling great. He is so happy and crazy and playful (which is why he has so many bruises). So we are so grateful that this hasn't been something that makes him feel bad or anything. Of course now, his lip hurts. But that should heal soon I hope.

We've been amazingly supported by friends, family, coworkers and church. We thank you all, and have never felt so loved. Trenton is our world, we never realized how much we would love this little guy, and it kills us to see him suffer. So everyone's support has been much appreciated.

If you really care about what ITP is, Google it, or go to: http://www.pdsa.org/itp-information/index.html