Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

That sounds scary, right?  It's what Anthony has.  I am writing this while sitting on the floor of the bathroom in Anthony's hospital room.  Mike brought him here this morning, after Anthony woke up with black sores in his mouth and on his lips.  GOOD LORD.  I can't even believe it, still, even after typing it over and over.  It was scary.  I immediately started googling stuff but I just knew it was going to be leukemia, I was going insane, planning my funeral clothes, practically!  I know!  I know it's horrible but I was freaking out.

I took the girls to their first day of preschool, and then brought the baby up to the ER, where almost immediately the ER doctor told me his white blood cell count was fine and that he didn't have leukemia.  That's when I really started to cry, the relief of something not happening is often more emotional for me than something not happening.  Anyways, (shouting out thanks) my mom and my Aunt Barbara came and got Felicity and Mike and I sat here with Anthony while we waited.

We got admitted around 12:00, I think, and then boy oh boy did we wait. We had only talked to a resident before that, he talked to us about ITP and told us there were treatments for it.  By this time, I had of course posted on Facebook about it and my friend Joey posted about how it seemed similar to what her son had several years ago, which of course was ITP.  Life is weird, right?  Anyways, finally finally the ped came in and talked more to me and looked at Anthony and then the hematologist came in and said we could either a) do nothing, b) give Anthony steroids or c) give him an IV treatment which might fix it forever, but would at the very least up his platelets so that he wouldn't be in danger of INTER CRANIAL BLEEDING like he is now.  We couldn't do a) nothing because Anthony is too "active" (this means crazy, he was standing on the couch when the hematologist came in, ha!) and he could hurt himself and then have internal bleeding.  So.  That's out.  Also b) steroids are out because we are not interested in possible side effects which include increased agitation and possible psychotic behavior.  My brother Larry took steroids for an auto immune disease and thank God, never had any side effects but we can't risk it.  So, it's c) the IV treatment and God willing, they'll do it tonight and observe him for 24 hours.

Grateful.  I'm so grateful that it happened today, when the girls started school, so they were covered from 9-2.  I"m grateful my mom and aunt came to get Felicity.  And I can't even say how grateful I am to all these friends of mine who texted me and called and said on Facebook that they were praying.  I swear I can feel the prayers and love from all over the place.