Crash

Dayssi's counts have officially crashed. We went to the clinic for her weekly blood work this morning and I could see the nurses expected it. "She looks pretty pale," sang the nurse as she led us into the exam room. And she does. She has what the nurses affectionately call "white lips," which refers to the monotone grey of an anemic child's face. They called me an hour after labs with the results. Practically no hemoglobin, and so few white blood cells that they don't even count the neutrophils (infection fighters). I think that qualifies as an ANC of zero. Her platelets are still in the ok zone.

So what do you do when your kid is grey, with blood that is less useful to the body than beer? Transfusion. We went back in to the hospital around 1:00 and they gave Dayssi a big bag of blood. "We're going to make you pink!" exclaimed the transfusion nurse. And, they did. By the time we left, at 5:00pm, Dayssi's lips were red and her cheeks had a little flush going. She looks better. And it really perked her up, although I hadn't really noticed that she was flagging. The nurse told me that if one of us (meaning, an adult) had hemoglobin as low as Dayssi's we wouldn't even be able to stand up. Meanwhile, Dayssi went to dance class this morning before we learned the results of her labs.

So that's where we are. Still no fevers, thank goodness.

Tonight Dayssi will eat the final trace of delayed intensification, the one thiaguanine pill remaining in the bottle. She ate dinner late so I'll have to wake her to give it. Then we start two weeks off therapy. I don't know how long a blood transfusion lasts, but I doubt this one will carry her through the next two weeks. So I suspect there'll be at least one more. And her platelets could still crash, which would require their own transfusion. Dayssi also had two transfusions when she was first diagnosed.

So many people have reached out to us in so many ways in the last six months, and we are very grateful. But for anyone who is still looking for a way to help, I have finally thought of something: donate blood.