It's been a few days since I've blogged about gratitude. I want to share what I'm most grateful for this week :) A year ago, Brandon had another episode with his ITP and he was in the hospital for a few days...this time his platelet count was lower than it ever has been, even in the beginning....this time a year ago, Brandon's platelet count was below 1000. Before I share my gratitude, I will share what ITP is.
ITP or immune thrombocitopenic purpura (sp?) It is a disorder of the blood that is present when someone has luekemia and sometimes, just because. ITP is when the body fights against itself and the platelets. A normal person has between 150-240 thousand platelet count.. if a count goes down to 50 thousand or below, then hemoraghing can happen. When the platelet counts get that low, then brusing happens, in big dark bruises and/or little tiny pin pokes called petechia (sp). The treatment for ITP is expensive antibody treatments and a treatment called IVIG..immune something.... They are supposed to help raise the platelet levels in the body so the bruising goes away and healing begins.
When Brandon was in 3rd grade...2003/2004, he came home from school with some really bad bruising, which we thought he was getting from kids at school hitting him. Well, the school thought he was getting them from home...no one knew where the bruising was coming from. We took him to the dr. in Ontario and they suggested that it might be ITP...those dr.s are so amazing :) We had Brandon's blood tested and his platelet count was all the way down to 3000. The dr. called and suggested that we safely and carefully get him to St. Lukes to be checked out and get his counts back up.
In Boise, another dr. did some testing to see what they could figure out... nothing... they did a bone marrow test to check for luekemia...which thankfully he didn't have. After several months of expensive treatments that only worked for a few days, we had to put him on prednisone (steroid) and it got his levels up a bit higher, but still, he had to have constant blood tests every week or so.
For the past few years since the initial start of his ITP, we have been blessed with the wisdom to know what to do...two years ago, when Brandon had just started 5th grade, he had another episode where his count went down and he had to do the prednisone again. We decided to take him back to boise and check again...the dr.'s there said that they needed to remove his spleen... which is needed for proper immune function. I didn't feel comfortable with this idea, so we decided to see a kineseologist. We went to Emmett to see the one there and she did some muscle testing on his body to see what was wrong... AMAZING!!!! His left tendon in his foot was twisted all the way up his spine, limiting his spleen. She put his body back in the proper place. We saw some amazing transformations at that time :D WOW!!!!!
Since then, Brandon has only had one episode requiring hospitalization which was last year. So far, this year, he has been healthy and had no bruising...we're keeping our fingers crossed.
At the same time Brandon was in the hospital last year, we had another incident where I had Aaron watch Kyler while I took Josh and Dallin and went to relieve Tim at the hospital. It was Thanksgiving day so I put the turkey in and woke aaron up to watch Kyler and make sure he was safe. When I got to the hospital, I called to see if aaron was basting the turkey...the police answered my phone.. I WAS SHOCKED!!! Kyler had woken up and Aaron went back to sleep :( Kyler thought I had taken Dallin and Josh to the school, so he decided to go up to the school to find me. Well, I wasn't there and thankfully that whole ordeal ended peacefully with my baby back with me and our family back together.
So, the things I'm grateful for this week are my family's safety. Brandon's health. The wisdom we were blessed with to know what to do for him and his health... and I'm grateful for the kineseologist who knew what to do for Brandon and knew how to teach us about the body. I'm also grateful for good insurance to take care of expensive hospital costs :)
Remember your blessings and be grateful for them :) Tell your family you love them and appreciate them. Cherish the time you have right now...don't wait :D
1 comments:
I had no idea you were going through those things. I am grateful for all the things I have learned working at a health food store (We do muscle testing there as well, the owner took many classes). Our bodies are amazing and sometimes they need just a little help. God knows what he's doing :).
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