Transfusion x 2

Check out the pictures above! So I sorta had a feeling today's clinic visit wasn't going to be pretty. By this morning Cora was covered in bruises and petichae (if you don't know what those are suck on the inside of your elbow joint for a few minutes and watch for red dots). She had a really nasty dark bruise in the center of her chest, bruises lining the inside of her mouth, and a black blood blister on the tip of her tongue. She was fussy with little appetite. So when we arrived at the clinic and Cora stuck her tongue out at one of the nurses, they shuffled us back to a room, and took blood for a CBC to check counts. No one was too surprised when her platelets came back at around 10 and her Hemoglobin at 6.8, which meant both needed to be transfused, AGAIN! I questioned Dr. G and the nurse as to why they were so low again after the transfusions on Monday, but they both continued to assure me that it was due to the previous month of chemo and counts should start to come up on their own soon. So platelets were ordered from the blood bank. (they have to be given before blood.) But low and behold----The Savannah Blood Bank was OUT of platelets. Seriously, they had none! (you can donate platelets just like you donate blood, but you need to call and schedule a time. if you live in Savannah, do if for sure! They obviously need it.)They were expecting a shipment from Florida in the afternoon that would most probably contain platelets for Cora. So...we came home, ate a little lunch, and waited. Around noon we got the call that the platelets were here and ordered. So we started then, got the platelets followed by the blood, and left with the doctors and nurses at closing time. We go back on Tuesday. We are hoping counts will be up, but have been ordered to "lay low" until them. Having low platelets means easily bleeding and bruising and she should avoid trauma. It's hard to avoid trauma when you're Cora. This evening she already wiped out on wet tile in dress up shoes and landed flat on her back, and pulled a drawer out directly into her lip and it got fat and bloody. So at bed time when she said, "mama, tell me a story with your mouth." She got a quick story that went something like this... Once upon a time there was a little girl named Cora who got hurt easily and had low platelets. Her mama and daddy didn't know what to do, so they put her in a giant bubble and just rolled her everywhere. The end.