Nana Judi

Before it got better!   A little over a week ago Andrew called me to tell me the woes of parenting…with sick kids!  They were all, including Andrea, sick again!  He had taken Oliver to the hospital with a bad rash one friday night, where they, assuming it was some type of allergy, gave him an antihistamine.  I don’t think it helped, then Andrea was sick over the week-end, and Dan’s RSV seemed to return.  On Monday Andrea took Oliver to the doctor because he had bruises over much of his body…how scary!  A blood test revealed that he had half of the low-normal amount of platelets.  Platelets are the sticky cells in your blood that make it clot, forming a scab when you cut yourself.  With too few platlets the blood has trouble clotting and a lot too few platelets can result in severe bleeding, or, if there is a head injury, intercranial bleeding.  This is a condition called ITP (Immune (or Interstitial) Thrombocytopenic Purpura).  It is a result of the immune system thinking that the platelets are a foreign body, so it begins to destroy them!  Not a good thing!!  It often happens a few days, or weeks, after a viral infection, in which the immune system has been trying to kill off the virus, and then continues to kill off platelets!  There is no treatment unless the platelet count goes too low, and then the only treatment is a transfusion of platelets.  Needless to say, we don’t want that to happen!  I talked to a lady at church today who has a neice who had ITP, which lasted for several years, and required several transfusions.  She ended up having to have her spleen removed, which stopped the problem, but then ends up with a compromised immune system.  Oliver has to have a blood test every week until his count goes up to normal.  Not the favorite thing for a four year old!  I talked to Andrea yesterday, and the blood test this week was normal!  Praise the Lord!  There were a lot of people praying for him, and my other grandbabies!  Oliver still has to have another blood test this week, to make sure the count stays at normal, and then he may have to have more, just not so often, at some point they will just watch for bruising and/or the rash.  Dan is also much better!

I also talked to Jenni yesterday, and her boys are much better as well, and she is feeling more and more like the new baby girl could come at any time!  She’s due in 5 days!!  So I am getting my suitcase packed so that I can leave at a moments notice!  I will take it to work with me for the duration so that I can leave right from work if she goes into labor while I am at work.  I’ll also carry my cell phone with me at all times so I can run as soon as they call that it’s time!  I did that  before Eamon was born, and I was in the middle of doing a mammogram when my phone rang.  The lady knew I was waiting for a call, so she was excited for me to stop doing her mammo and answer my phone.  However, 18 month old Aidan had got hold of his mommie’s cell phone and hit “Redial”…false alarm!  I got a couple of those at work, but when the (more or less) real call came I was getting my nails done.  She wasn’t in labor yet but thought I should come up now so she wouldn’t have to call and make me drive up in the middle of the night!  Very thoughtful daughter, right?  Unfortuanately, she didn’t go into labor that night, so I had to drive back to Tacoma the next morning to go to work, and then drive back up to Burlington after work, and she still wasn’t in labor!  She finally had Eamon very early on Sunday morning!  My supervisors at work don’t especially like the idea of my taking off work when the baby is born, but they accept the fact that moms need to be with their daughters when they give birth, if at all possible!  Come to think of it, I like to be with my daughters-in-law when they give birth, as well!  That hasn’t always worked out, but I was with Andrea when Oliver was born, and with Susie when Nathan and Jacob were born, so I have only missed the births of Aariah, Lily and Dan, and I got to see Aariah before he left the hospital, Lily when she was about two weeks old, and Dan before he was three months old, so that’s not too bad!  I told my supervisor that I probably wouldn’t have any more grandbabies for about two years…maybe!  Well, I should eat lunch.  If I get too hungry I eat too much!  Oh, update on my diet…I’ve lost 22 lbs, and 20″!