CBC - 11/10/2008

We actually went longer than two months between appointments this time around, as we were scheduled for last week, but cousin Sophie's birthday was on the same day and we do have our priorities and wouldn't have missed that for anything. :) I had originally planned on taking Max out of school for the day and doing a whole Boston trip with him, but between a teacher's workshop on Friday, Veteran's Day tomorrow, and having to miss a day for the allergist a few weeks ago, I decided to just do a pop in and pop out this time around. It went well, except that I think next time I will try to go straight from school to the hospital because getting settled in the house before we left made for a difficult start. However, once we got on the road, we were in and out quickly.

Dr. Ebb saw us first thing today (probably because we were running late) and brought in two stethascopes so that Max and Lauren could have one to play with while he asked his normal questions: any illnesses, bruising, lack of energy, anything else notable, how has he been doing, how are we doing etc. Every time I go there, I am reminded how lucky we are to have him. I know he is incredibly busy, and yet he always takes the time with us. Then he looked Max over and said he looked great and said we could come back in 2-3 months. This was before getting the labs done, he just felt by looking at him that he would be in good shape. Oh, for those who remember that we never got the ANC last time, it was 1800. The nurse came in and did Max's blood draw, which was a lot less traumatic than last time. He had brought a bear to snuggle which seemed to help. He did balk at the first attempt, but I just gently held his arm and she did the draw quickly. While he complained for a second, as soon as it was done, he was all happy again, especially when he found out he was getting a Spiderman bandaid. Then, Lauren wanted her turn. I never thought I would be happy to say that she has a pediatrician's appt on Thurs, but never was a child so looking forward to seeing "my doctor."

Dr. Ebb and I talked about saving the cord blood, and he talked with one of the nurses who has a lot of experience with it and got a form from the Cord Blood Registry. He, as Max's doctor, needs to send them a letter. He said he would start the ball rolling, but suggested I check back in with him and make sure he remembered to do it. Then, I bribed the children to leave (seriously. They did not want to go, but I wanted to beat traffic) and headed home without the lab results. Dr. Ebb said he would try to call but that he had a family thing to take care of and if the labs came back before he left, to just call them.

Around 4:15 (right after we got home), I called the clinic and left a message and about 15 minutes later, Suzanne, one of the nurses, called with Max's labs. About 30 seconds after picking up with her, Dr. Ebb called my cellphone. I ended up talking with both of them because she had all the labs but he wanted to talk about the results. They were very good. His retic count was a bit high and his red count a bit lower than in the past (I think) which isn't a bad thing, but Dr. Ebb suspects that his counts dropped a bit when he was sick. The retic count shows that his body is making red cells to make up for it, so that is a good thing. I don't like that he still seems to drop when he gets ill, but at least his body is able to recover. This does indicate that maybe the slight paleness and lack of energy that I was worrying about a few weeks back may have been real, not imagined, but I am not going to stress that. The rest of his numbers were just fine. We are going back in January (we decided that seeing as the baby is due in early Feb, it would be good to have a mid Jan appt instead of waiting until mid Feb. I am sure Josh will appreciate this.

Sorry for the wordy post. I shouldn't blog when tired. But if I didn't, I would never blog.

Here are the numbers.
WBC: 4.6
PLT: 144
HCT: 34.9
HGB: 13.2
ANC: 2020

Oh yes, and the picture? When we got home, he wanted to play Spy, so he got in disguise, including wearing his new to him ski helmet and goggles (we can not wait to get the kids on skis this winter) which he has barely taken off since we got them on Saturday. Love the blond curls.