The start of it all..

Here we go, the start of it all. In the beginning of November we took Parker to the doctor because he was fussy and we had noticed a little lump behind his left ear, and a little lump on his neck. He was teething at the time and I had asked every nurse I worked with what these lumps could be, and they had said they were most likely swollen lymph nodes. So when we went to the doctor he told us he had a double ear infection, which we, as well as the doc, thought were related to him teething. He gave us an order for an antibiotic for 10 days and said his lymph nodes were swollen and if they hadn't started to go down in two weeks to call and make an appointment with our doctor. So two weeks later he still was fussy and not sleeping much at night, so I called our doctor and told them what was going on and they set up an appointment for us to come in. When we saw our doc he looked at the swollen lymph nodes and they still hadn't gone down, but his ears looked okay. His right ear was still a little red but it was not too bad. He said it most likely be a month before they started to go down, and he wasn't worried about them because they didn't seem to bother Parker. They were not tender and they moved around in his head. If they are cancer they say they are very tender, and they don't move around when you push on them. So a few weeks later Parker was still fussy and not sleeping well and the lymph nodes had still not gone down. I took him into instacare and he had another double ear infection. I had asked her if there would be a reason that they hadn't gone down, and she hesitated for a minute, and then said that we would follow up with our doctor in two weeks and if they hadn't gone down then he would do a blood test to make sure they weren't cancerous. I think she could tell I was a little freaked out when she said that, so she said let’s just do one now and then you don't have to wait two weeks. At this time I actually had an appointment with our doctor for Tuesday and this was on Friday. They came in and tried to draw blood from him. They couldn't get it the first time they tried and so they tried a second time. I am not going to get into details, but I was very unhappy with our appointment and the way they were trying to draw his blood. I told them I didn't want them to try again because Parker was freakin out and again I was not happy with the way it was handled. I told them we had an appointment for Tuesday and I would talk to my doctor and see if he wanted to do a blood draw. So we left there with a second round of antibiotics. Meanwhile, this poor boy of ours was getting Tylenol and teething tablets to help with the pain of teething. Awful... And on top of it all he was getting two molars in at a time. By the end of it all he had got 8 teeth in.

On that following Tuesday Rob took Parker to the doctor to see what he thought we should do. He didn't think we needed a blood draw because there weren't any signs of the lymph nodes being cancer. Our doc is one of the greats, so we didn't think it was needed. Again the lymph nodes were not like they would be if they were cancerous. He still had a little bit of an ear infection in his right ear, and he said that when this cleared up the lymph nodes should start to go down. So we went home on another antibiotic for 10 days. When Parker was on his third round of antibiotics he got a very sore bum from all of the loose stools he had. He also started to look pale and then we had noticed he was bruising easily. My mom was watching him every Tuesday while I went to class and she had noticed it as well. We thought it was just us seeing it. About a week after Parker had finished his antibiotics, he was still having very loses stool. Of course I got on Google and searched for the answer to why he was still having loose stools. It said it could be he was anemic because he had lost so many nutrients from having so much diarrhea from all of the antibiotics. So I called our doctor’s office and told them that he still has loose stools and he looks pale and is bruising easy. I felt like such a bug to our doctor. But they are so good and never make us feel like that. The nurse said she would talk to the doc and give me a call back. When she called me back she said to put him on a pro-biotic twice a day for a week to help get some nutrients back into his body. We tried that for a few days and it seemed to work which made us happy. But it didn't help with him looking pale and bruising easy. He was sleeping great through the nights, which is something he hadn't been doing. The following weekend which would have been Saturday January 26 he felt a little warm so I gave him some Tylenol to help to sleep through the night and then Sunday he was fine and was up running around with his big brother Ethan. Sunday we had noticed a few little red dots on his legs and I thought are you kidding me he is getting a rash now. That night Parker and Ethan were playing and Parker rolled of the couch and hit his head. I hurry and picked him up and checked his eyes and watched him all night to make sure he was okay. After he fell he got right back up and started playing again. He is a tough little guy.

On Monday January 28, I came home from work and sat down with Parker and looked at his legs and noticed there were little pin size red dots all over his legs. By this point I was really worried and wondered what kind of rash this could be. Of course I googled it and from what he had on his legs it said to get medical help right away. I loaded the boys up into the car and we went to talk to my husband to see if he noticed all of the red spots. He hadn't noticed that there were so many, so I said am just going to take him to the ER. I called my neighbor to see if she could take Ethan while I ran Parker to the hospital. She is also a nurse and she looked at his legs and wasn't for sure what it was so she asked if I had called my doctor to see if they could see him. So I tried to call our doctor but they couldn't see him till the following day. They suggested I take him to instacare. My poor neighbor, as I was getting ready to leave I lost it. I started crying because I knew something more was going on with Parker. I am so grateful for her and all she has done for us. I don't know what I would have done without her. :)

When we got into our room at instacare and the doctor came in he looked at his legs and then asked if he could have another doctor come and look at him. I was fine with that. She walked in and looked at his legs and then said let’s do a CBC, which stands for COMPLETE BLOOD COUNT of the Platelets, White blood cells, and the red blood cells, of which I explained all about what they are in a previous post. When the nurse came into draw his blood all I was thinking is this better go better than last time I was here. She managed to get it the first time and when the blood was coming out it looked like red water coming from his veins. They came back in about ten minutes later, if that. The nurse came in and with the look on her face I knew something was wrong. She sat down and said to me that his platelet count is critically low. It was only at 9, they said that people are given transfusions when they are at a 12. He only had half the blood he should have had in his body. That is why he was so pale and why he had that rash on his body. The rash is called Petechiae (pronounced puh-TEE-kee-ee) which are pinpoint, round spots that appear on the skin as a result of bleeding under the skin. They told us that they called the ambulance and they were on their way to transport him to LRH ER and that we would be transported to Primary Children's I was really scared, but somehow kept it together. I called Rob (my husband) and told him to hurry and meet me at the ER and that was as much as I could get out. It took them about ten minutes to get there. So Parker and I stood in the room with a few of the staff around us waiting for the ambulance to get there. When we got into the ambulance Parker didn't know what to do and I was trying not to cry so he wouldn't be more freaked out. When we got to the ER it was very unfamiliar to come in from the back doors. As we walked in of course everyone there knew we were coming and knew in the back of their heads what it could be. It was so awkward walking in there because everyone looked at us with such sad faces. I was already scared to death and I was by myself and it just made me nervous for what they were going to tell us. Rob got there pretty quick after we got there and that's about when the docs started coming in and telling us what they were planning on doing. They came in and started poking him with needles so they could run some blood tests and they started checking his vitals because it all depended on how well he did before they decided to transport him to Primary's. His vitals looked great and of course labs were low. They told us they were going to take him back for a CT scan since he had fallen the night before because his platelet count could have been low if he had been bleeding internally. They also took him back for an MRI. They told us that it could be something viral or it could be leukemia. They had someone there look at the blood to see if they might be able to give us a little more, but they are not oncologists after all. He had said that he thought it was something viral. But it was hard to tell. While they were running all of the tests they had been on the phone with the oncologists and Primary Children's figuring out what to do. Whether or not we could drive him or they would have to transport him. While Rob went back with Parker for the MRI and CT, I tried calling my dad to see if he would come and give Parker a blessing. My step-mom and grandma came up to the hospital and they got a hold of my dad, and he was on his way. When he got there we asked for a few minutes to ourselves so my dad and Rob could give Parker a blessing. All I can say is what a peaceful, beautiful blessing. I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood. They came in and told us that we would be able to take him to Primary Children's because his vitals were good and if they were to take him he might freak out. Thankfully, my parents said they would come to the hospital with us. My step-mom and I left so I could go home fast and pack bags for all of us, including Ethan because he was going to have to stay with his grandma Mickey while we were gone. It was so hard to leave because we didn't have time to say goodbye to him and he didn't really understand. When Rob made it to the house we loaded up and headed down. When we got to Primary Children's, we checked in and they sent us to our room which was on the floor for children with viruses, because that is what one of the docs at LRH had thought it was. We were in the room for a few minutes when the nurse opened the door to tell us they were moving us to the fourth floor, which Rob heard them say that's for kids with cancer. So they moved us to the fourth floor where you are pretty much locked in your room. Poor Parker. :(  By that time my parents were with us and we were in the room waiting for the doctors to come in and talk to us. It was really late, around 10:00-10:30. The nurses kept coming in and started him on IV's because he had to have a platelet transfusion. They had the IV team come and draw his blood and they gave a small tube of it to one of the doctors to look at and to see if he thought it was leukemia. While he was checking the blood a female doctor and an intern came in to examine him. They checked all of his lymph nodes, which he had a lot more than we knew about. I still don't know if the lymph nodes were cancerous, but I don't think they were. Because once they started his steroid they came right down. Anyways, while they were examining him they feel for their spleen and their liver. If they are swollen, that is a big sign of leukemia. That explained to us why his belly looked a little bigger. After they had talked to us a little bit about what they found when they checked him out, the other doctor came in and sat down on these dumb little stools that are just intimidating. He sat down and told us that it was leukemia. He told us about the test they would have to run in the next few days to figure out what type of leukemia it was. We didn't know there were different types. He talked about AML and how it is harder leukemia with about a 70-90 % success rate, and I also explained a little about it in the previous blog. I don't know a lot about AML as Parker has ALL. He then told us about ALL leukemia and how depending on the child and all of the tests, it is not as hard on them and the success rate is 80-90% but more around 90%. But of course we will not know anything until the following day or longer until they run all of the tests. I don't really remember much else of what he said because I was a big mess so I kept asking Rob which of the two did he say has a better success rate. If I would've been thinking I would have googled it, because I google everything to find out what it is. I know our heavenly father was watching over us that night and he knows what a strong little boy Parker is and he will fight this battle and be stronger than ever. I am so grateful for those doctors that night, they were so compassionate towards Parker and all of our emotions we were going through. I am so thankful too for my parents to have sat up at the hospital for hours and not leave until after midnight. I don't know what we would have done without them there. It was a long night, so we had to wait until the afternoon of January 29 to know what Parker's diagnosis would be. I am also so thankful for my mother-in-law for taking Ethan when he was so confused about what was going on and she was the one that had to answer his questions, and she had to try to keep it together for him.