The boys are doing great. We have been camping twice, to the beach a lot and have had a couple of family bikerides together. We transport our bikes and the trailer to one of the many great trails around Halifax and go biking together. It is amazing how far Donovan can pedal - if motivated enough, he can go several kilometres without stopping. Malcolm seems to like the trailer. I feel guilty for stuffing him in it as he is the only one of us not getting exercise so we have decided to try to go biking when it is his naptime, when he would normally be relaxing anyways.
On Saturday it was my 25th blood donation. I got a pin from Canadian Blood Services. This is something that I encourage everyone to consider doing. It may not be glamorous but it is easy, fairly painless and absolutely essential to saving lives. I am the same bloodtype as Malcolm so I like to imagine that he has received some of my blood at some point...
Malcolm received his first transfusion when he was just five weeks old. He had been diagnosed with his blood disorder, TMD, on the day that he was born. We were told it would need to be carefully monitored but that it usually resolved on its own. Sure enough, two weeks after he was discharged from the hospital his blood counts were in the normal range. We had been going at least weekly but the hematologist decided he could wait for two weeks before his next test.
A few days before his blood test, Malcolm developed a cold that worsened with each day. At first I was not overly concerned as he did not have a fever - just congestion. By Thursday, the congestion was very bad and he was very tired (more tired than usual - newborns sleep so much!). I knew he needed to see a doctor. He was scheduled for a blood test in the morning and then to see his pediatrician later in the afternoon. We never made it to the pediatrician. After we returned home from having his blood drawn, we got a call from the clinic to come back right away. We went back in and learned that Malcolm's counts weren't normal at all - his blood was flooded with immature white cells called blasts that were so numerous they actually thickened his blood into "sludge". His heart was working too hard and he wasn't getting enough oxygen from his blood.
He was put on high flow oxygen immediately and sent to the PICU where they inserted a little central line into his chest and hooked him up to countless other wires and tubes. Within a few hours, he had his first transfusion - an exchange tranfusion where they drew out almost half of his blood and replaced it with "packed red cells" to improve the flow of oxygen throughout his body. He started a round of chemo immediately after the transfusion and a week later was feeling much better, his counts were normal and he got to come home. He needed two more transfusions due to the effects of the chemo and then that was it - he rebounded back to great health.
All the medicine and science in the world can't replicate blood, which is so essential to so many ill and injured people. They depend on you to find the time to donate. 1-888-236-6283 (1-888-2DONATE)
Mary Ellen
