Quick update

Rebecca took Eli in to our pediatrician for a blood test yesterday to see how he was doing. The petechiae have all disappeared and nearly all of his bruises have faded. Even his black eye is hardly visible! Today, the pediatrician called back with the results: 188,000! Normal platelet level is above 150,000, so he's doing great.

The next step is to taper off his steroid. We'll start doing that in a couple of days and hopefully everything will go well.

Thanks again to all the support and prayers that were offered on Eli's behalf. We really appreciate it!

Ice Skating with the Young Women!

The first week in January we took the Young Women ice skating. It was cold, but fun. (It's a good thing we brought hot chocolate!)

Megan, Sam and Britany


Taylar, Meghan and Amy. These three did not skate but we were glad they came and had a fun time anyway.


The South Jordan library has a fountain just outside it that they freeze in the winter and open for ice skating. They also have The Pie pizzeria right there so we had to buy a giant pizza to share with all the girls.


Shaylee and the friend she brought.


Savannah and the friend she brought.


Madison, Kayla and Kailee.


and last, but not least, two of my amazing fellow leaders. (Lindsay was there too but sat in the car with her little baby)

Richardson's Caricatures

Back in December we went to the mall to see my uncle Owen. He draws caricatures so we wanted him to do one for each of us.

He asked the boys what they wanted to be doing in their pictures and Isaac chose flying without a parachute and Joseph chose to be a Jedi Knight.


Kate wanted to be a princess. (not a surprise)


and Eli loves balls so he was a basketball player.


He even did one of Nate and me! What do you think? Does it look like us?


I love the pictures and the kids do too!
Thanks Owen!

Happy New Year

We had a relaxing New Year's Eve before all the craziness with Eli.

We went to Target for their after Christmas sale and found some fun things. One of them was this pretty tree marked down from $249.00 to $60.00 that we just had to get! (When we got home Nate wanted to set it up to see how it looked, that's why it's in the middle of the family room.)


Then we went over to the Holt's (our neighbors) for a little party and the Hansen's came too.

Nicky and Coulsen were having fun playing the Wii...


and I was tempted to try the chocolate fountain.


As you can see, Kate enjoyed the chocolate fountain!


Eli had fun too.


Kate and Eli doing puzzles with Emily.


Amanda and Isaac playing with Amanda's guitars.


Nate had a little too much fun with the sparkling cider!


We played one of our favorite games: Compatibility, as well as Catch Phrase and Fact or Crap. (excuse me)


and Joseph was so tired by the time midnight came around that he fell asleep on the couch!

Eli's home!

Eli was able to come home today since his platelet count was 22,000 this morning.  We still have to keep a close eye on him, but it looks like he's going in the right direction.  We're grateful for all the love and support we've felt from family and friends.  We are truly blessed to know all of you!  Thanks!

The first night he was in the hospital, I only had my inferior camera phone to take pictures.  These photos that Rebecca took with our other camera give you a better idea of what Eli's poor body was going through.

 

Update on Eli

Eli's platelet count was up to 6000 today. He was at 3000 Sunday night, which is why they wanted to keep him at the hospital last night. Normal range is 150,000 to 450,000 per cubic millimeter. They had told us at the Urgent Care facility that he'd have to have a transfusion if he dropped below 20,000, but so far they haven't felt the need to give him one at the hospital. They've been giving him an oral steroid along with an antibiotic for his ear infection and an antacid to counteract the heartburn that the steroid can cause.

He's still in good spirits, though Rebecca said he's getting a little stir crazy from being cooped up in a hospital room all day. I'm sure Rebecca's feeling restless as well! She asked if they could walk around the hospital a bit and the nurse said that would be fine if Eli wore a mask. Well, Eli would have none of that, so they stayed in the room. I took the Nintendo DS and his favorite game, Nintendogs, to the hospital today and he seemed to enjoy that. He even managed to win a disc competition with minimal help from me. That's pretty impressive for a kid who turns two next month!

Hopefully we'll have some more good news tomorrow and Rebecca and Eli will be able to come home. It sounds like he'll be on the steroid treatment for a while after he comes home until his platelet levels normalize. At that point they'll see what effect a lesser dose has on his platelet count. For now, I'm just trying to keep up with our other three kids at home!

Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura

So, Rebecca's spending the night in hospital with Eli.  We took him to the urgent care place yesterday and found that he had a really low platelet count (36,000).  They asked us to bring him back today and it was even lower (20,000).  They sent us off to Primary Children's Hospital for treatment and a possible transfusion.  When they took his platelet count there, it was down to 3000.  They suspect it is a virus that could be causing an auto-immune response that is taking down his platelets.

They started him on a steroid treatment tonight and they will probably give him a transfusion tomorrow after the hematologists can get a look at him.  He's as happy as a lark and doesn't even realize he's sick.  He hasn't even batted an eye at all the finger pokes and didn't seem concerned at all when they put in an IV at the hospital.  What a brave kid!  Obviously we're worried about him, but everything they've told us has been encouraging and hopefully he'll be fully back to normal in a few months.

 One of the nurses let him choose a stuffed animal to keep and he chose this cute little dog.  This is all a big adventure to him!  Please keep him in your prayers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiopathic_thrombocytopenic_purpura