Hospital Life...Day 10

We are technically starting Day 11 as I type this, as it is just after midnight.  However, this is to update you on Day 10 {Thursday}.

When I woke up Thursday morning, I noticed that Peyton didn't look as "good" as she did Wednesday.  I wouldn't have said she looked great then either, but to me there was a definite change.  Her eyes seemed more sunken.  She just didn't look as great.  I also noticed that her heart rate seemed to be a bit higher than it had been Wednesday.

When the team rounds in the morning, the first thing that happens is that I am asked my opinion of what I think is going on with Peyton so far that day.  I gave my impressions as I always do.  I commented on the heart rate, how she looked, what I noticed about her swelling, and so on.  At rounds, the bloodwork that had already come back showed that her hemoglobin was once again pretty low and she was going to need another blood transfusion.  However, labs later in the day showed higher values so they decided to put that on hold.  They don't want to transfuse unless absolutely necessary.

Peyton required an IV dose of iron today.  This is the second of {I believe} three doses.  The IV iron is a mass quantity of iron for severe anemia.  I was told today that Peyton essentially has no recordable values of iron in her system - that's how bad it is.  They are hoping that these IV infusions will help.

It was decided that the team would get a couple other specialties to weigh in on Peyton's case.  First, Gastroenterology.  They can help to see if there is something going on that would be causing Peyton to be losing protein or have some sort of bleeding issue in the GI tract.

The second specialty was HemOnc.  That's Hematology / Oncology if you haven't heard the term before.  Hematologists are blood specialists.  They came in and took a history of Peyton and asked a lot of questions.  I was able to point out the random strange bruising that happens with her.  She has several examples of it right now.  I was assured that they are in absolutely no rush to get Peyton out the door.  There is something going on with her that is very frustrating and near impossible to figure out.  It's hard to treat something when you don't know what you're dealing with.  They don't understand why the things that are being tried aren't working as well as hoped.  The one doctor was just so sweet and definitely reassuring that they are doing everything they can.

So, what does this mean?

More tests.  More labs were drawn.  They will probably draw more later today.  HemOnc actually thought that her thyroid looked a little "full", so they'll probably test that as well.  But lots of other tests will be done as well.

For now, they are making Peyton as comfortable as they can.  She seems to be having her pain managed alright.  She definitely is more comfortable in the big bed.  As we're now 30 minutes into Day 11, I'm going to wrap up this Day 10 post so that I can get some sleep.  I'll update later on with Day 11 information.

Thanks so much for your prayers and support.