Sunday, July 26, 2009

A Very Long Day

At 8:30 this morning, Greg and I took Ty to Floyd for a CBC and bilirubin. His CBC was run immediately and came back with a hemoglobin of only 7.3 so we were sent directly to Kosair where we were told residents were waiting for us. We checked in at 10:30 and waited for an hour for his room to be cleaned. Once we were settled in his room, we waited for a few hours until a resident finally showed up to start the transfusion process. We discovered that the blood bank needed additional blood, his IV took two different NICU nurses to get started and it ended up in his forehead. It was not easy to watch them insert that or look at it through out the rest of the day. They finally started the transfusion at 4pm and it went well with the exception of the IV backing up 30 minutes into the transfusion. They finally wrapped up the transfusion at 7:45 and we waited an hour for them to rerun his labs and get the results before they discharged Ty. His hemoglobin was up to 10.1 when we left but they cautioned us that it will likely drop again because that was a fresh blood draw after the transfusion. We finally arrived home at 10pm. Thank you to Kirbie and Miss Billee who delivered Panera Bread for us this afternoon! And also to Jennifer and Kim who offered dinner. And also to Jamy who kept kiddos last night for us as well as Tracy who kept Makenna all day today. It really helps to have the support of friends like you!

We did end up meeting the hematologist that has been working with our pediatrician the last few days and we really liked her. She is also an oncologist and heads the bone marrow transplant program at Kosair. She was so knowledgeable and willing to educate us on what to expect for Ty. It appears this all stems from my OBGYN dropping the ball on the antibody disorder I have in my blood. They should have been screening me throughout the pregnancy to see when it reached a high level. At that time, Ty should have been taken early to prevent this from happening. Greg and I had a lot of time to discuss this today and realize that as frustrated as we are with the the OB, we know God's hand has remained on Ty's life. He could have died in utero. If he were taken early, he could have had additional complications....we just don't know how it would have turned out so we count our blessings that in 12 weeks or so, this ordeal will be over and Ty will be healthy. We are blessed because we saw plenty of babies the last two weeks that won't be healthy.

The hematologist, Dr. Cheerva did prepare us that this may not be Ty's last transfusion. He is pretty sick with high levels of antibody in his system so he may need more to get him through it. She did tell us that it could last up to 12 weeks but that we will be done at that point. Just knowing there is a light at the end of the tunnel helps us cope on days like this. It is tough to see Ty go through it and the human error aspects are really difficult for us.

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