Summer is Here....

But what would summer be without a little drama?

We finally got through the school year but the illnesses that hit our household continued until pretty much the very last day. Connor, however, is now a fifth grader and Cameron is a second grader. I can't believe that Connor has only one more year left in the same school with me. This makes me sad to say the least. Kyla is sad that she won't get to start school next fall. Since her birthday is the end of September she missed the cut off so she will always be one of the oldest in her class. She is soooo ready to go now. She will tell you that too.

I must let you all know of the drama that we had this past week. Cameron, as everyone knows, is a VERY active and rough playing little boy who always has bruises on his legs. The way he throws his body around I am convinced he will be a UFC fighter one day. Anyway, I noticed last week that he had a significantly larger amount of bruises on his legs but chalked it up to more time outside with the neighbors. Then on Monday when I picked him up from daycare I noticed a very large bruise on his back. It looks like he had gotten beamed with a baseball. When I asked him about it he had no idea there was anything on his back at all. I found this hard to believe but he is a tough kid. He finally told me that he had played dodge ball at day care and I figured he had gotten hit. The next day I showed the daycare providers and they were alarmed and suggested I take him to the doctor to have it looked at as the balls they use would not make such a huge mark. So I did. They ordered blood work and then the drama. Cameron's platelet count came back at 33,000. Low end of normal is 150,000. So the docs here were going to wait 2 weeks to repeat labs but that didn't seem right to me, especially with our history. To me low platelets is a HUGE red flag. So I called the University and talked with Connor's oncologist. She had me bring him up on Wednesday where they did their own blood work. Luckily his platelets were up to 45,000 but he was diagnosed with ITP. A blood disorder where his body is not recognizing its own platelets and fights them off. The good news is that this, if monitored closely, is not life threatening and there are treatment options. Poor active Cameron is out of his rough play mode though until his platelets reach at least 50,000. He will get his counts checked pretty regularly starting next week. The docs won't do a treatment on him to raise the counts unless the count drops to 20,000 or lower. From what I have read kids who are diagnosed with ITP usually go into remission by 6 months so that is very good news. I am very happy that it wasn't what we all feared and I know this is something that will be okay in the end. However right now, until we get his platelets up above 50,000 and stablized there I won't be completely at ease. Especially because of how active he is.
So, there you go, yet another medical issue we need to deal with and how bizarre that it is another blood thing. I am thankful though that he is with the same oncologist that Connor is with. Keep it in the family.

I am also trying to find a new home for Guinness. He has developed yet some more behavioral issues and he has become too much for me to deal with both financially and emotionally. It breaks my heart but my time and energy(and money) need to go to
my kids.

So I am starting this summer with a little break to get rejuvinated up here in North Chicago with Scott. He has reserves this weekend and will probably find out sometime this weekend if he is getting deployed. If he does this may be the last time I see him before he leaves. So, getting some Scott time and relaxing and I am going to let go of the things that just are.

Cheers!
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