What a difference a day makes...

Message from Mommy-
This has been a crazy week for our family. Ryker started off the week playing and enjoying the 80+ degree temps outside, going for walks, and hitting the playground as usual. We had his 18 month check up on Tuesday. He was in great health and other than his chronic ear infections, was looking good. We had to schedule an appointment for next week with an ENT for his ear tubes. As the week went on we started noticing extensive bruising on Ryker's legs. By Friday I had called the doctor because he had developed little dots of blood under the skin, bruises on his ear lobe, abdomen, and arms. Ryker was feeling fine, just looking beat up, and we thought it could possibly be something antibiotic related...no big deal, right? As Ryker and I finished up our Friday at the park with Lauren and Emerson, the doctor's office called to ask us to stop in for a visit. An hour and a half later I was realizing how wrong I was. We were talking immediate blood tests at the children's hospital and possibilities from viral infections to leukemia--That's one word you never want to hear from your pediatrician. Ryker was such a trooper at the blood draw. He cried and fought it a lot, but he rebounded quickly. We headed home to meet Grandma Brenneman (as she had come down for the weekend to see Ryker, since she didn't get much time with him last week), just in time to get the phone call from the doctor that Ryker needed to be admitted to the hospital immediately. His blood platelet levels were rock bottom. Normal is 150-400k in a sample. Ryker's was 13k. In short, this means that his blood won't clot, so any little bump was resulting in a giant bruise. We were checked in very quickly and once in his room Ryker received an IV and had additional blood tests. Shortly afterward, the doctors informed us that Ryker had a very rare blood disorder called idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura, or ITP for short. It means that there's no known cause, that his platelets are low, and it results in big purple bruises. As you can imagine, it was a little scary learning that our son had a blood disorder, but relieving that it wasn't cancer. It was tough to hear that he would need to receive an IV treatment to try and boost his platelets. There's a lot of info that I'll spare you, but since he's a toddler and his blood won't clot it is a pretty dangerous situation. He falls, he could bleed internally; he bumps his head he could have a stroke. The hematologist said sometimes this can resolve on its own, and in 80% of kids it is gone in 4-6 months. However, Ryker's levels warranted intervention and fast. Friday night he got his first treatment. He fell asleep while the medicine was being given in his IV. About an hour after the treatment he awoke with convulsions and chills. As I was rocking him his temperature started climbing. We called the nurse...it was 105! Scary. He was covered in ice packs. He started vomiting and then a half hour later he was back to sleep and his fever was back at 102. All of this was to be expected as it was a possible side effect of the IV treatment. Saturday, he had another blood draw and his levels were at 33k. That was great news! It was back on the rebound. The bad news is it is still at a level that is nowhere near normal. The improvement was good enough to let us go home though.
In 24 hours we had gone from a beautiful day in the park to a rare blood disorder in the hospital and back home to manage it all. We are so thankful that Ryker is doing better, and we hope that he continues to improve. We are blessed to have such awesome friends and family to help us through, visit us at the hospital with food and spoil Ryker with toys and a balloon, and support us. We will just take things one day at a time from here. God won't give us more than we can handle each day. Ryker will need blood tests and depending on what those tests say he may or may not need more IV treatments. The hematologist was encouraged by his platelet jump overnight in the hospital. We find out Tuesday at his next blood test if that is continuing. We pray it is. In the mean time, no climbing, no parks, no sliding, no running through the house, no rough housing with papa...and that is probably the hardest part, that this super active boy is so restricted in his activity and he can't understand why. Ryker feels just fine, but his blood is sick. He wants to play and climb like he normally does, but he can't because he could fall or tumble or bump something. Right now he needs a bump free environment. We are trying our best to provide that for Ryker, but it is not easy.
We are overly thankful that God has pulled us through this ordeal and that Ryker's condition is temporary and manageable. We trust He will bring Ryker back to 100%, and we look forward to the day when he is healthy, really healthy, again. Ryker will be back next week, hopefully with good news to share with you. Until then, thanks for your prayers and for following along with Ryker's adventures!