How We Learned Something was Wrong

 Around May 21, 20121, I went to change Andrew into his jammies at bedtime and was shocked to see his legs, from ankle to knee coved in large black bruises. I tried to think of what he could have done to inflict such ugly, dark marks and came up with nothing out of the ordinary.  He’s an active, energetic 2 year-old who loves to play and play hard. He loves to climb and jump.  He has strider bike skills worth bragging about, and can hard core crash with the best of them.  I decided it must have been an eventful day, Troy and the other kids couldn’t think of any excessively brutal falls he had taken, so we decided to watch and wait over the weekend. 

On Monday, May 24, I had plans to take a little trip by myself to enjoy a little R&R, and wasn’t overly concerned with the bruises. Boys will be boys, right? The family dropped me off in Park City and we decided to eat there and swim in the fancy pool for our Family Home Evening activity. I made homemade Oreos, a family favorite for the treat, and we had a nice evening together. 

When I returned home on Thursday, I noticed two bruises on each side of his forehead, with explanations of “typical” bonks to explain them.  I was surprised by the dark color, but wasn’t overly worried. We were looking forward to Memorial Day, Spencer’s birthday, and Our 19th Wedding anniversary.  A few bruises were no big deal. On Tuesday, June 1, I had an early ultrasound and OB visit, and while I was out, Troy took Mark and Andrew on a little bike ride.  Andrew donned his shark helmet and mounted his Strider bike, and had his first crash in front of the next-door neighbor’s driveway. He hit a bump, cranked the handlebars sideways and landed on top of his bike. He cheerfully hopped back up and continued on his way; one fall wasn’t going to keep this kid from exploring the world! 

When I returned from my appointment, the first thing I noticed was a scrape on his neck, with a bruise already forming below it.  A few hours later when I changed his diaper, there was an ugly purple bruise on his hip as well, both results of the strider crash.  At this point, I know something was wrong, so I called and made an appointment with his pediatrician for Wednesday, June 2, at the same time Spencer had his well child checkup: 3:30pm, which also happened to be the last day of school for the year- Yippee!

 In the office the following day, the doctor examined his bruises, listened to my explanations of how I couldn’t even think of what had caused the bruises all over his legs. (These were almost 2 weeks old, and had not hardly lightened in color, or morphed into the rainbow of blue, green and yellow, that our run-of-the-mill bruises typically produce.) I explained about the bike crash and the resulting injuries. I know the doctor recognized the red flags of what this could mean because he ordered a lot of blood tests, but simply told me that the bruises were most likely because of low platelet levels. He gave me enough information to convey the importance of preventing any head impacts, because if he was correct, and his platelet levels were low, it could be very difficult to stop the bleeding that could easily follow such a hit. Thinking out loud, I asked if he was working tomorrow to give me the results.  He replied, “Oh, I ordered these STAT, and I’ll call you tonight.” Hmmmm, I didn’t realize this was urgent.  We went downstairs to the lab at about 4:30 and Andrew sat quietly on my lap and simply said “Ow!” when they poked him with the little butterfly needle. After a few tears and seven vials of blood later, he and I cheerfully made our way to the car, with a sucker in his hand. 

We returned to our busy home and all ate dinner together, with the STAT status of the lab order haunting my thoughts as we tidied up the dishes. In curiosity, I logged into our health account and was able to tell something was wacky with the lab results, but I don’t have the expertise to put it all together and figure out what it all meant. I knew the doctor would call as he’d promised. 

At about 7:00pm, Andrew’s pediatrician phoned and simply said, “Nicole, can I stop by your house? This is a conversation we need to have in person.” My heart sank. Luckily the office was just a block down the street, but I was so impressed with his gracious offer to make a house call.  We did a quick “shove-all-the-visible-mess-out-of-sight” tidy and anxiously awaited his arrival.  

I didn’t envy his job when he arrived. His face was grim.  He sat down and told us that his bloodwork showed two likely diagnoses: leukemia, or aplastic anemia.  To gain a definitive diagnosis, we would need to perform a bone marrow biopsy the following day. He called Primary Children’s hospital before he arrived at our house and let us know they would contact us soon to arrange the details. Before he left, he recommended that we give him a blessing and lots of hugs.  Knowing that our go-to person, Grandpa Brad, was our of town for our niece’s graduation, I asked if he would be willing to assist in doing so. We invited all the kids into the office and our beloved doctor humbly and graciously accepted the invitation.  He anointed Andrew with consecrated oil and Troy followed by sealing the anointing and giving a brief, but tender blessing. The room was filled with love when we all said “Amen.” He hugged Andrew before he left; heading back home to his own family after a long day of work and going above and beyond the call of duty.

We explained to Andrew’s 5 older siblings the basics of what we had just learned, and before we had completed the conversation, the phone rang, showing “Primary Children’s Hospital” on the caller ID.  On the other line, was the on-call doctor in the Hematology Oncology department with a few more details and a request to have Andrew come in that evening.  He needed an infusion of platelets from a blood donor before he could undergo the bone marrow biopsy the following day. His platelet levels were at 8,000. Normal is over 150,000.  This was serious. 

We began our usual bedtime routine after we hung up the phone, and as we read scriptures together  that night, Little Lizzy read the following verse in section 61of the Doctrine & Covenants, verse 36, “And now, verily I say unto you, and what I say unto one I say unto all, be of good cheer, little children; for I am in your midst, and I have not forsaken you;” I immediately felt such comfort as the Holy Ghost whispered to my heart that I wasn’t forgotten, and to keep my chin up and be cheerful. We knelt as a family and prayed; uncertain of what the future held, but filled with faith. Then Troy packed an overnight bag and took Andrew to the hospital, and I got the kids into bed. They asked lots of questions and I gave as many answers as I had. It was late before they were all settled in for the night. It was much later before I was able to fall asleep.