Dr. K Visit 4-4-12

Our follow up appointment with Dr. K was on Wednesday, April 4, 2012.  I picked Zeke up from school early that day to go.  On our way to the Children's Hospital Zeke asked me what doctor we were going to.  "Mommy are we going to the one that gives me the poke (shot), the one with all the machines, the one where I have to stay the night (hospital) or the one with all the toys for me to play with (therapist)."  It makes me sad that he has been in and out of doctors offices basically since he was 2 weeks old when he had his first surgery.  I try to always be as honest as possible with him.  I told him we were going to the one where he gets the pokes.  He got really nervous.  He doesn't like the pokes.  He told me when they poke him this time  he was going to scream really loud and cry.  I didn't doubt it.  One of his favorite things to do is try to guess what color of shirt Dr. K is wearing that day.  Dr. Kirkpatrick is usually wearing wild and/or bright color shirts.  When Zeke was last in the hospital in December, Dr. K wore bowties.  Zeke loved it.  Zeke guessed that he would be wearing a pink shirt and I guessed green.  Zeke replied "but it's not St. Patrick's Day, mommy."  We both got a laugh as I explained to him that you can wear green on other days too but that's the only day you would get pinched for not wearing it.  As we pulled up to the hospital, Zeke began to get anxious.  He wanted me to carry him in, so I did.  When we get into his office Zeke always sits down to color or play with a puzzle until we are called back.  He was only at the table a couple of minutes before we were called by the nurse...and I feel horrible because I have forgotten her name.  Anyway, she took us back and asked Zeke what the first thing he does is.  He pointed over to the scale and said "you weigh me silly."  Before he got on the scale, he needed to potty.  So he did that then hopped on the scale.  After that she checked to see how tall he was, then took his temp and blood pressure.  She didn't give me any of the information this time.

When the nurse was done she took us to room 2 to wait on Dr. K.  Zeke climbed up into my lap and asked me to read The Cat in the Hat to him, so I did.  I had only read a couple of pages before his nurse walked in with the lab tech.  The lab tech wasn't the same one that usually comes to take his blood.  Zeke doesn't like his blood to be taken in the first place then when you mix that with a stranger doing it, it doesn't equal a happy little boy.  He said "you are not the one that is supposed to be here in.  Where is the other lady?"  They told him she was the one working that day and everything would be fine.  He began crying as they 'gave his arm a big hug' to find a good vein.  His nurse held his left arm down and I held down his right arm while tucking his legs between mine so he couldn't kick.  As soon as that needle touched his skin he let out a horrible scream and cried really hard.  She was done in no time at all but he wasn't done crying for quite some time.  He was so upset that he had to get a poke.  After I got him to calm down his nurse told him to go pick out a toy from the bucket.  A toy always makes him feel much better!!  He knows exactly where to go to get his toy.  He selected an airplane lego kit.

We went back to the room just as Dr. K was coming down the hall to see Zeke.  We were both wrong about the color of his shirt...he was wearing blue today!  He asked Zeke how he had been doing and all about our cruise.  Zeke told him about all the fun he had while we were gone.  Dr. K then asked him how he had been feeling and Z said "good."  I told Dr. K that Z had a sinus infection a couple of weeks ago, right before we went on our trip.  So he was aware of that.  He told me that Zeke looks great and that just by looking at him you would never know that he didn't feel good or that anything was going on inside his body, which I agreed.  We chatted for a little bit longer then he sent us on our way.  The lab closed at 4pm and he thought he would have the blood results back before the day was over and would give me a call to let me know about the numbers.  He wanted to hold off on making another office visit until we knew the results.

After our appointment we stopped by Tonya and JoeJoe's house for Zeke to visit.  They always like to compare their 'battle wounds.' Somehow T & J know how to make everything much much better!!  Zeke has been learning about caterpillars at school and while we were over there we saw one crawling on the side walk.  Zeke was so excited!!!

 As soon as we walked in the door at home from visiting my phone rang and it was Dr. K.  He called me at 4:25pm.  When I answered the phone Dr. K told me that they got the results back and his numbers haven't dropped...not even one single number.  They were STILL at 1,000,039.  When he told me that I think he could hear the disappointment in my voice.  He said that any stress on the body can cause the platelets to rise.  Even Zeke being sick a couple of weeks ago would have done just that.  So we aren't exactly sure that they didn't come down any and just went up with his sinus infection.  He wants us to come back in for another office visit anytime within 4 - 6 weeks.  He said if I have any concerns and feel like Zeke needs to come in sooner then to call the office and come right in.  I can't imagine anything happening that would make me concerned at this point.  At the next appointment if the platelets haven't come down and they are still high at the 6 month point (June) then he will want to repeat the bone marrow.  Again, I think he heard the disappointment in my voice when he said that.  He assured me that it wasn't to check for Leukemia but that he needed to see if there was scar tissue in the bone marrow.  At that point if there is scar tissue then he will want to start the Anagrelide instead of the 1/2 aspirin daily that he is currently taking.  If he doesn't have to put him on it, he doesn't want to because there are too many side effects.  This is a medicine that chemo therapy patients take.  Side effects would be nausea, dizziness, headaches, heart palpitations, chest pains...I don't want my baby to have any of these symptoms!!!  He is not a complainer.  My fear is that he would be hurting and I would never know because he doesn't tell me.  Dr. K is hoping that the aspirin will do it's job over the next few weeks and get those platelets to come down again so we don't have to go that route.  My family and I are hoping for the same.  If you are one of Zeke's prayer warriors we would appreciate prayers that the aspirin is working and his platelets come down dramatically.  We don't want to repeat the bone marrow or have him put on Anagrelide.  Thank you!!!

I called Dr. K's office the next morning to schedule our next appointment which will be on May 9th.  We will also be seeing Dr. K again at that time.  Thank you again for the continued thoughts and prayers!!!