Today is Caroline's 3rd birthday. Well it is actually on Tuesday but today we will be at the Little Gym to run and play for an hour and half. Caroline has been a blessing and a challenge since day 1! Since birth she has screamed like she was being tortured.
A year ago (Sept 30 2008) Caroline was admitted into UVa hospital because they thought she may have leukemia. She was in the hospital for 2 1/2 days and we had a bone morrow biopsy and terrible vomiting and thrashing around after she came to from the "sleepy drugs". We fought with her for several hours not to try and walk,vomit and run until she could actually stand. While we were waiting for for results I ate and watched all the other children on the peds. floor. Newborns to tweens. Tubes,monitors, fear in parents voices and the sound of Pegasus flying over head. During the night a 6 month old was brought into our room in what looked like a small plastic box. He had just been transfer by helicopter to UVa because something was wrong with his heart. His parents never spoke. They were just on the phone and talking to doctors all night. I finally feel asleep to be awaken by a med. student to check on Caroline and draw her blood again to check her platelet's. Finally around lunch time her doctor came in with the glorious news that she did not have cancer. They said she had Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. ITP for short. What that means is her body was attacking her immune system. Her platelet's were very low. I would have to make sure she didn't fall,play to hard and try to keep her from getting sick. OK so the entire time we were in the hospital she ran around with an IV in her arm while getting platelet's. She never seemed sick. We got to leave the hospital and were to been seen back on the Peds Hematology/Oncology floor the following Monday. I was so scared to go to "that" floor I thought I would puke Sunday night. I couldn't believe I had another sick child. I was so mad at God. How could he do this to me? I had a special needs child. Wasn't that enough? I pulled myself out of my Sunday night blues kepy saying If she is going to be sick, I am going to make sure she has the best care possible. I had so many years for fighting for Tanner I was ready for the fight for Caroline. We are now in December 2009. We were just released from UVa unless she shows signs of the ITP is back. We went from going every month for blood work.2. every 2 months now we are free. The strange thing is I will miss the nurses and seeing the children that are getting better. I didn't get to know any other families but I watched as their child would receive chemo. and their little bald heads were starting to get a little hair. I always wanted to say Hi but I felt so guilty that Caroline had hair and color in her checks. I will miss them and love them from afar.
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