Everett was born with small dots of bruises all over his body (a bunch on his scalp, and a band of them below his belly button) called petechiae (peh-TEEK-ee-eye). The midwives and nurses had never seen this much petechiae on a newborn but didn’t really think it was something to be worried about. When the pediatrician came into the room to check him out around 10:00 am, he didn’t seem concerned either but ordered a blood test to check his platelet levels just in case. There are 3 parts to our blood: red blood cells which carry the oxygen through our blood stream, white blood cells which fight infection, and platelets which thicken the blood and also allow clotting when we bleed. Normal platelet levels for both adults and babies are between 150,000 and 444,000. Everett’s results came back telling us that he had 14,000. The pediatrician reordered this test to be done because he had never seen them that low and thought it might have been done wrong. While waiting for the results of the 2nd test they moved Everett to the NICU. Shortly after getting settled in and hooked up to all of the monitors, we learned that the 2nd test came back telling us that his platelet levels were only 9,000. Yikes! This is where I broke down. At this point, the Pediatrician said that this was out of his hands. He passed us off to the Neonatologist who was Everett’s doctor for the rest of our stay at the hospital. After finding out that his levels really were so low they gave him a platelet transfusion. Ideally, they would have liked to use my platelets. But since they had no idea why they were so low, and getting my platelets would take a lot longer, they just used some from the blood bank at the hospital. While we were waiting for the platelets to get to us, Sean and Brad (Sean’s Dad) gave Everett a blessing. The blessing calmed me down a little as I realized that God was in control, and I knew that we were being taken care of. After the platelet transfusion, they also gave him an injection of Immune Globulin (IV-IG). This is basically a shield that coats the platelets to protect them from being attacked by anything that might be attacking them, and also encourages platelet growth. Four hours after the platelet transfusion they checked his platelet count again. They had skyrocketed to 123,000! At this point, they have NO idea what is wrong with him. They don’t know why his platelets were so low, and they have no idea why he responded so extremely well to the transfusion. (I wish I knew how high they were expecting them to be!) Initially they thought that maybe his platelets were attacking themselves, (among other things) but all of the data just wasn’t adding up. The Neo at this point told us that he still had no idea what was going on and he suspected that we’d be in the NICU at least until next Saturday (this all happened on Saturday, the 7th.) For the next day, Everett’s platelets would be tested every 6 hours. I was still a patient up in the maternity ward, so every couple hours I’d go down to NICU (an 8 minute walk) and nurse him and hang out with him for awhile. Then I’d go back to my room to eat and sleep. Sean spent his time going back and forth between NICU and my room. I got discharged Monday morning and was able to go to Everett’s NICU room with him until we were discharged. Not everyone gets a private room in the NICU, but since Everett was full term, his cry was so loud that it was disrupting all of the premies in there. (I’ll have to remember that I was once very grateful for his fully developed lungs when he starts screaming at me :) ) It was such a huge blessing to have our own room where we could sleep, nurse, and hang out with our baby 24/7 without having to go home in between to sleep and eat.
Everett’s platelet count went from the 123k to 85k, 63k, 79k (after IV-IG), 68k, 58k, 70k (after 24 hours), 98k (after 24 more hours). Wednesday morning, after the 98k count, we were able to bring him home! They were confident that his levels were going up on their own and are assuming that this is all fixing itself. We had another blood draw this morning (5/16/2011) and we will find out those results today or tomorrow. Once his levels get above 150k, we can finally circumcise him. Poor baby! I hope we can do it sooner rather than later! (Post edit: We ended up getting him circumcised when he was 13 days old.)
I had a hematology appointment on Friday (5/13/2011) and the hematologist (blood doctor) originally thought this was Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP) which basically means low platelets. According to my blood draw history, I have gestational thrombocytopenia which means I only have low platelets during pregnancy. But, gestational thrombocytopenia isn’t able to be passed to the baby. However, ITP is (in 10% of pregnant women with ITP). So, because of the low platelets in the baby, they thought I had ITP. Then, the hematologist called me on Saturday and said that she thinks my gestational thrombocytopenia is the red herring. She thinks that this is a completely different issue all together and that that was just distracting them from the real thing. Sean and I are going this afternoon to get our blood drawn so they can send our blood to one of only 2 labs in the country that do this extremely rare test. I’m not sure what they are looking for, or what they expect to find, but I am hoping that we get more answers with these results. I have no idea how this will affect future pregnancies and babies, and why it affected Everett but not Brayden and Asher. I can’t wait to get more solid answers!
Looking back, I know it was a huge blessing that I chose to deliver Everett naturally. For my first 2 pregnancies, I was terrified of natural child birth. But for some reason, from the second I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted to deliver naturally. I had good friends that were a fantastic support team, and I knew that I had the strength to do this. Since I went naturally, I felt *everything*. Because I felt everything, I wanted Everett out. I didn't wait for him to slowly come down. I pushed twice and I pushed hard. Everett came through the birth canal so quickly that his head wasn't mishapen at all. (From an 8 to birth within 6 minutes). Because of his low platelets, if he would have been in the birth canal any longer (which he definitely would have if I had had an epidural) there is a huge possibility that he would have had brain hemorrhaging, leading to brain damage or even death. I am *so grateful* for the strength and knowledge that I received from the very beginning to do this naturally, otherwise this all could have had a very different ending.
Looking back, I know it was a huge blessing that I chose to deliver Everett naturally. For my first 2 pregnancies, I was terrified of natural child birth. But for some reason, from the second I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted to deliver naturally. I had good friends that were a fantastic support team, and I knew that I had the strength to do this. Since I went naturally, I felt *everything*. Because I felt everything, I wanted Everett out. I didn't wait for him to slowly come down. I pushed twice and I pushed hard. Everett came through the birth canal so quickly that his head wasn't mishapen at all. (From an 8 to birth within 6 minutes). Because of his low platelets, if he would have been in the birth canal any longer (which he definitely would have if I had had an epidural) there is a huge possibility that he would have had brain hemorrhaging, leading to brain damage or even death. I am *so grateful* for the strength and knowledge that I received from the very beginning to do this naturally, otherwise this all could have had a very different ending.
