Tim

He had a little bit of petechiae this week, but his cbc came back at 183k, so we are still at 1mcg per kilo (71mcg). If he hits 200 they will give him less. He seems to be having stomach and esophagus issues again, said it feels like the time he had the bleed, but his platelets are good, so hopefully its nothing. I'm gonna ask for a gastro refereal for him to investigate more.

Wow, i am so happy that he is still experiencing high counts, thats awsome. I hope his stomach and esophagus issues get sorted out. I tend to get reflux, not sure if thats a side effect of anything, but my mum gets it too, so it could just be passed on from her.

Tim seems to be prone to autoimmune processes. He's always had asthma (pretty bad at times), eczema, even a butterfly rash the he fights constantly (with no other indication of lupus-which runs in his dad's side), and now he has what the GI described as what looks like allergic esopaogitis (he had a tech name for it that I don't remember-seemed small next to no platelets for months). He did have H-pylori at one point, which I thank may have triggered the erosion he experiences in his esophagus. Couple that with the mild smoking (I've never seen it, but he has opportunity at school and he's admitted it) and drinking (same scenerio), and the massive amounts of immune suppression (which scares me re: developing espoph.cancer which his grandfather died of)...well, its stacked against him. I'm just hoping he matures a little before he leaves home (he'll be 18 in June). I've been letting out the leash so to speak so that he doesn't dart off in a rebellious frenzy when he does leave home. Moderation...that's what I'm hoping for...moderation. And lots of grace too.:side:

Glad his platelet count is staying up. Hope he realizes that some habits do make things worse, but I know every teenager has to learn themselves that one things contributes to another.

Caitlin has had a lot of bloody noses these last few weeks, but it is weather-related. We thought for sure that her count was going to be low this week when we took her in because she also had blood running down her arm after she had a blood draw (after we left). Her count was still 116 and that night she came down with flu-like symptoms. She is also still on 1 mcg/kg. Sometimes I wonder just how much their body is making its own platelets vs how much the drug is really helping them. It seems like such a tiny amount to really do that much.