My Baby Boy

William wasn't feeling well at daycare on Wednesday.  In fact, he didn't eat breakfast nor lunch and his temperature got up to 99°F then 100°F that afternoon.  William's G-nanny (JT's mom) brought him some Tylenol to daycare because we ran out of it in his backpack (I know bad mom!).  She later told me that he was very irritable and needy.  When the temperature went up, JT picked up William and Keisha from daycare and took them home.

Thankfully, the fever broke and never came back but William remained extremely cranky.  Since the fever didn't come back, I thought he was just teething, but boy was I wrong...

All parents and guardians of little ones know that you have to closely monitor fevers for children.  Anything 100°F and higher can be extremely dangerous.   Unfortunately for William, we have to take extra precaution because he has sickle cell anemia.

This topic has been hard for me to share on my blog since I first had the confirmation of the disease a week and a half after the twins were born.  We knew that there was a 25% chance that one or both of the children would have the disease, but when their pediatrician called me that morning, the news hit me hard... very hard.

Anyway, throughout my depression, I have been coping with how important it is to share information because I know that I am not the only one going through this.  I can learn from other parents and loved ones and people just might be able to learn something from my experiences.

...Thursday morning, William's equilibrium was off and he stumbled throughout the hallway at daycare.  He began to tap the side of his face and the crankiness continued.  I looked over at JT and said we're going to the hospital.  I rushed to get ready, grabbed the Mara, went downstairs... I saw Keisha at the end of the stairs, I didn't think that I was moving fast.  I had a vision of me falling down the stairs and the next thing I know, BAM... I fell down the stairs, tried and failed to catch myself, hit my left brow on the wall and landed at the bottom.  I have no clue how many actual steps I slid down.  I really shouldn't walk down the steps barefoot.  This is the second time that I have fell down the stairs.  I yelled out for JT and he rushed over with the children right behind him.  Despite William not feeling well he wanted to make sure that mom was okay.  Keisha and William are so full of love.

Luckily, I only had a slight headache, no open wounds and my vision was in tact.  I took two extra strength Tylenol to ease the tension.  I gathered my thoughts together and we headed off to the hospital.

We didn't have to wait long before we saw a doctor in the emergency room.  William had a lot of wax build up in his ears, so she had to scrap some out to see if there was any infection.  The doctor saw the redness in the right ear and in his throat.  This was not the worst part of the news.  It is pretty routine for William to have blood work done when we go to the E.R.  The hemoglobin count came back and it was 3.8.  The doctor immediately told us that William was going to need a blood transfusion.  William was having a splenic sequestration crisis.  This happens when his spleen enlarges and traps the blood cells.  This is a very dangerous situation.

It took several hours to get William a donor match because he has an antibody in his blood.  The hospital had to get the blood from and outside lab.  We arrived at the hospital at 7:45pm and the transfusion started 11 hours later at 6:45am.

William's blood count went up to 6.5 (9:00am, Friday morning) 6.8 (3:00pm, Friday afternoon) and 7.0 (6:00am, Saturday morning).  William's normal range is 7-8.  I am so thankful that his blood count went up and stayed up.  I prayed that God would look after my son and give him and my family strength to get through the crisis.

Now it is Saturday afternoon and the doctors are preparing the paperwork so we can go home.  JT's mom and sister will be picking us up from the hospital.  We will have to bring William back to the Hematology Department on Monday for a follow-up visit.  The doctors told me what precautions to look for, such as tiny red spots and bruises on the body.  This means that the platelet count is dropping and we will have to bring him back to the hospital.

I will leave it at that for now.  I'm going to pack up our things and after they take out William's IV, I will wash him up.