Waiting for warmer weather

Trenton saw his doctor again today. Tyler and I were really thinking that his count had gone up. He doesn't have as much bruising as he did last week, and his eye is looking better already (still pretty nasty, but better). So we were kind of surprised to find out that they are still at 8,000. We did learn one interesting thing, that he will bruise more easily in warm weather, something about circulation. Weird though, huh? So when he wears shorts in the summer, that's when he'll look the most beat up. Great!

The doctor is afraid he is becoming more chronic, because other coagulating functions of his blood are rising. But she's still hopeful that he will get better on his own.

The next drug to try is Rituxan, which is normally used for a type of lymphoma. Here I go with my limited medical knowledge: this drug is supposed to reduce the number of B cells he has, which would in turn decrease the number of antibodies there are that are killing off his platelets. But this would also very much compromise his immune system, so the doctor doesn't want to give it to him in the winter when he's much more susceptible to all kinds of other infections (especially being in day care every day). The side effects are things like nausea, headaches, fever, etc. No fun. Also, this drug has only been being used for about 5 years, so the doctors aren't in any rush to give it to him, since they don't know the long term side effects.

So, we are going to wait and see the doctor again in two months (unless needed sooner), and will get his blood checked periodically in there. If his counts are still low in two months, we'll probably do the Rituxan. But we are still hopeful that he will miraculously get back to normal on his own. We have his little red and white "stuffed" blood cells by his crib, wishing him the best.