Friday, August 28, 2009

petechiae and bruises

I had to take Kayla down to the hospital today. I noticed that she was bruising a lot and I found petechiae on her back. ::sigh::
Petechiae (pronounced PA-Tee-key-eye) are red or purple dots that form when there has been a broken capillary vessels.
There is this list that we were given when she was diagnosed. It was actually a huge binder full of information, ways to keep track of chemo, explains what the names of chemos she is going to get and their side effects.
Anyway, in the binder there is this list "When to call the Dr."
Petechiae is one of the "things" that you have to call the Dr for. Since I already knew that her counts were down I figured her platelets had gone too low thus causing the petechiae. There is only one other time that she got petechiae, her platelets were only 8. So if she was to injure herself and start bleeding, her blood wouldn't have clotted. That is why is to important to call right away.
We get to the ER to check in (the clinic closes early on Fridays) and went to sit down. Well it was blazing hot outside, the sun was shining directly at the benches outside. So I had to sit in the section that is reserved for people that are brought in by the police. The head nurse in charge contacted the ICU and told them that we were there. So we were sent up to the floor where they do transfusions and surgeries.
(There was this "pass" that we were given when Kayla was first diagnosed. It says something like "This child CANNOT sit in the waiting room, he/she is to be taken back to an isolation room." something to that affect.
Back to my story, she had her blood drawn and within 10 minutes her counts were back. If you have not had to sit and wait for counts to come back then you do not know how long the wait can be. We have waited 3 hours before. The reason it came back so fast is because her oncologist was the Dr. on call on the ICU. He had them "STAT." I turned out that her platelets were 48 (they transfuse if they are 20 or lower) and I found out that her ANC is 400!!! I was so happy to hear that! She was 100 two days ago. As far as the petechiae, they said she could have been playing too rough (probably the cause) or it just happened because it happened. I don't really get too many answers when it comes to my child's ailments.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I rarely get answers either. Like we are pretty sure that Isa had a seizure, but the docs only say, 'It could have been the medicine."

Thanks for posting.

AllRightHealth.com said...

Read more about Petechiae.