3/3/10

gray and i slept in his little adjustable bed last night (jason was on the pull out chair) in the pediatric oncology wing of Sutter hospital. most of the kids here are being treated with chemo and the kindergardener sharing gray's room has been in this room for three weeks.

i can't imagine what these parents are feeling - going through this every day and night. it was so inconvenient being here just one night (the smells, the thick air, the tiny space you have to occupy, the food, the little sink you have to brush your teeth in, the pee you have to catch in a jug, the hourly temperature-taking, etc). i realize i have NOTHING to complain about because most of the kids here have been living this way daily. the sad part is that there was a shortage of beds when we got here, meaning all the beds in this area were occupied with kids battling cancer.

this morning, gray woke up at 6am, like usual, and was a total ball of fire, like usual. they took his labs at 6:30 and hopefully we'll hear good news and be able to go home. he headed to the play room with his "wolverine" hand, so i think he's feeling just fine.

my heart goes out to all of the families here who will not be going home today or any time soon. i was crazy concerned about gray yesterday and couldn't even organize my thoughts (and probably still can't). i'm not sure this makes sense, but, man... no one should have to go through cancer. surely not kids.

interesting side note: jason and i are supposed to be catching a flight at 5pm to san antonio to look for a place to live! ha! we'll just have to see. probably not in the cards.

ITP

soooo.... grayson has a ton of bruises from head to toe. i thought it was just (boys being boys) battle scars from wrestling. he acts completely fine and no one would have guessed that anything was wrong with him. maybe out of paranoia that people thought i was beating him, i decided to take him in to the doctor today to make sure everything was on the up and up.

after some blood work, the doc determined that his platelet count was dangerously low (15K when 150K is the norm) and had us go immediately to the hospital in SAC. he is there overnight getting IVIG -- platelets through IV -- and they will retest his blood tomorrow. hopefully he will be able to come home in the morning!

we're pretty sure we've ruled out anything more serious, such as leukemia, and we will have to continue to check his blood for the next 3-6 months.

THANK YOU all who called, texted, brought food, offered to bring food, came to the hospital, prayed for us, facebooked, offered to watch jake and wyatt... etc. you are all amazing and i am thankful to have you in our lives.