he is a sicko...

We are currently at the hospital. We came here yesterday at around 10 am because when he threw up in the morning, there was dried blood in it (sorry for the graphic detail, that is one of the things that alerted me to the fact his platelets were low).  He also had some strange bruising on his chest and shoulder, which is another indication.  So we came to emerg, they did bloodwork and when it came back, his platelets were below 5! Now this is very strange, because we just spent all day Friday at the clinic, where he had a platelet and a hemoglobin transfusion.  He didn't have a fever, but he did continue vomiting for a couple of hours.  They brought us up to the ward, where they gave him some benedryl and then the platelets.  When we arrived the doctor took one look at him and said, "I think we'll be keeping you here..."  Rats.  I have to admit, he looked pretty bad; very pale with dark circles under his eyes. 

Thankfully my Uncle Ken and Aunt Helene came in the afternoon, so I could bring the RMH van back there and pick up some clothes, etc.  Uncle Ken stayed with Noah and they watched a movie together. 

During the evening, Noah went to the bathroom and his urine was red, so they tested it, looking for blood, but it tested negative.  He went to sleep at around 9 and fairly shortly after that his temperature started going up - it went up as high as 38.4 at 11:30, which is 0.1 degrees away from a fever (38.5), at whcih point they know there is some sort of infection and immediately put him on antibiotics.  It never did go any higher than that, thankfully, and it is now down to 37.7, which is still high for him, but not technically a fever.

They always do bloodwork at 4am, and when those results came back, his platelets were again below 5!  His hemoglobin is also low-ish  again, so they are thinking about doing another red cell transfusion as well.  He is getting the platelets right now. SO weird!!!

I am not sure if I explained what platelets are, but just in case you don't know, they are basically the part of the blood that forms clots, so if a person has low platelets, his or her blood doesn't clot, and they can bleed to death. Right now Noah can't even brush his teeth, because his gums could bleed and it would be really hard to stop it.  He has all these little spots where the blood is just kinda leaking out of his capillaries and making little tiny bruises.  His urine is still red, and one possible cause of that is that his blood is just leaching into his bladder or kidneys.  Another possiblity is that he is so dehydrated his kidneys are just not working that well.  Not sure what is going on...
He was throwing up again after 5 am so they gave him Gravol, which didn't seem to work until about 6:30 , but then they gave him Benedryl too, so he is REALLY tired!  Poor guy. 

His breakfast just arrived, so I am going to try to get him to eat some of it....  Please pray that they figure out what is happening with him-especially what is going on with his platelets- soon!