Monday, November 24, 2008

Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP)

Well this week has been quite a week to get to this point. How do medical moms hold everything together when all it feels like is one blow after another? For me it just seems that as soon as something looks like it will be resolving another mountain is placed before me to climb. This time the mountain is called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP).

It seems that Corbyn does not have platelets maintaining in his body right now and for unknown reasons. His platelet count is 1000, the normal low according to sites on line is 150,000, and the normal high 400,000-500,000 (depends on the site). With a platelet count of only 1000 it is no wonder he has the horrid bruises he does have.

Yesterday I circled all his bruises and counted 42 circles. Today when we saw the dr there were many more. She told me to expect even more bruises with his platelet levels. I tried NOT to freak out when the urinalysis came back with a moderate amount of blood. But I am glad, ok not just glad but relived, that the leukemia tests came back normal so that was ruled out!!!

We have been severely limited on what he can do. Not to mention Corbyn was suspended from school today for carrying a pocketknife. It turns out the pocketknife is actually an old nail clipper set. Yet, still he had a “dangerous weapon” on school grounds so therefore had to be suspended. This has already started out to be one heck of a week, one I wish I could just curl up in ball and forget about. At least we got to the bottom of the bullying. That was a big misunderstanding and he now realizes that he has not been bullied but just playing with other kids.

I think the best thing to wrap up this week with is a poem that someone posted in my college class. The Author is Unknown.

Don't You Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill.
When funds are low and the debts are high.
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.
When care is pressing you down a bit.
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns.
As everyone of us sometimes learns.
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
And you never can tell how close you are.
It may be near when it seems so far:
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Found the Real “Bully”….

After having Corbyn take a bath, I circled every single bruise on his body and we discussed why I was circling his bruises. Holy cow the child has 42 circles on his body!!! During the circling session we talked about the fact that I would be talking with his principal, his primary teacher, (he has a team of three) the school nurse, and his peds dr. Confused he asked me why so I let him know that we need to find out why he is getting so many bruises and why they are not leaving.

I then called Jairon in showed him Jairon’s forehead when just last week he had a huge goose egg due to running right into the wall. Yes, the darn kid ran and did not stop till the wall stopped him knocking him on his butt. I asked Corbyn where the bruise was (gone of course). Then had him show me his leg where he hit the monkey bars and asked what the difference is. We talked about the fact that the dr needs to help us find out why he has so many bruises that are not leaving.

We also talked about bullying and his version. Turns out he is getting “bullied” when playing soccer. The conversation we had follows.

Me pushing him: I do not like you
Me pushing him: get away from me
Is this child doing this to you?
Corbyn “no”
Has he pushed you down on the playground when playing “no”
Has he pushed you out of line? “no”
Has he pushed you off the playground equipment? “no”
Has he pushed you since he got suspended (he was suspended for pushing another child a while back) “no”
Has he tripped you when you are running? “yes, when we are trying to kick the soccer ball” (ah ha moment)
“sometimes we get in a big crowd everyone trying to kick the ball and he kicks me”
“I like my shoes because they help me move really fast from the back of the crowd to the front where the ball is, and we all kick and get kicked”

At this point I started to laugh and told him if anyone is getting bullied it is the soccer ball with everyone trying to make a goal.

We have a misunderstanding about what bullying is and is not. This is an issue I do need to bring to the principal so this can be addressed. If he is confused then I know others are too.

Totally Confused now...

Wow what a morning I have had. I have had many replies to the emails I sent out with some very good responses and now I am really confused.
Last night when I took the pictures of my sons bruises he had one on his forehead that was barely visible, yet today it is bigger, darker and shows up much better on the camera. He had no clue what happened and our 7 yr old said "remember you bumped your head on the door?"

After describing this situation on one of my special needs boards some of the advice I have received is to make sure we are seen by the dr and ASAP tomorrow. After having watched the one bruise go from barely there to dark and bigger I am really wondering if I was right to get so worked about the bullying. Is this really bullying, just normal 8 yr old boys playing, just one who normal rough housing suddenly is getting bad bruises.

I still am working on not kicking myself for not seeing the bruises before now. My husband said he has been watching the one from the monkey bar and is concerned by it not healing yet and I guess it is over a week old, so far it shows no sign of the swelling going down or healing according to my husband.

Why does parenting have to be so hard sometimes?