Cityretreat

Never a dull moment in '08, that is for sure...so the much anticipated dads/NYC, moms/Chicago visit went down last weekend and ours took an unexpected turn.

First, the dads had a blast. They toured the big apple, saw the sights, took in a 13 inning Yankees game, ate their hearts out, and washed it all down with several Dewars. The perfect guys weekend.

The gals had a fantastic start - lunch at Table 52 was even more spectacular than expected. We walked off our indulgent meal with a stroll on Oak Street and Michigan Ave. Great shopping, perfect day. Friday night we met more family in town at Old Town Brasserie and had a wonderful evening.

Woke up Saturday to my mom experiencing more curious bruising on her body, in fact it had escalated further with the addition of red blood spots all over her legs. After several calls to various GPs and our doc in the family, she is advised to get a blood test (immediately) at the emergency room. We didn't really sweat it, headed down the street to the closest hospital on our way out to do some shopping.

Note this is a bit long, but I've condensed...

Doc reviews bruises, takes blood and tells us we're going to be looking at the platelet count. Normal levels are 150K - 500K but anything over 100K is OK; under 10K is considered serious. She says no need to go into more details, lets wait for results.

Doc leaves. Doc returns.

Mom's count is 2K. As in two thousand. (Later, after she is checked in to her room, several nurses and a PA come to see the "2K platelet patient" because they've only read about levels this low in textbooks).

Understandably, my mom wants to go home. Don't you always want to be home when you're sick? She wants to get on the first flight back and check into a hospital there. Doc says with her levels so low, she is at risk of spontaniously bleeding out.

Que first wave of extreme panic, (for both of us).

Doc speaks with the hemotologist (blood doc), who thinks it is ITP which is a virus that could be caused by a low grade fever or lupus, lymphoma or leukemia.

Que second wave of extreme panic, (for both of us).

Ultimately, we convince her to check into the hospital in Chicago. It helps that the doc says we'll have to sign forms saying we'd be leaving against their medical counsel since if she were to fall, get into an accident, etc. she would die.

You got it, third wave of extreme panic.

She finally gets a room at 5pm and we nestle in for what will be a five day stay. I'll skip ahead to the good part...she is OK! It was ITP but not connected to any of the scary "L" words. While very slow to respond (which is normal), her platelet count finally did start to bounce back and she tearfully shouted to anyone who would listen "I'm a 28K!" on Tuesday night. By Wed morning she was a strong 66K and could safely wander the streets without any danger.

And, as it turns out she did go shopping immediately upon being released from her wheel chair, gotta love her enthusiasm.

A huge, scary experience. The blessing was, outside of the platelet count, she felt fine so we catered in all her meals and ate really well; MIL was in town (remember, it was moms weekend?) so we had a big party in the room Sat night; my sis happened to be in Milwaukee visiting a friend and came by Sun morning to say hello; and my dad flew in Mon to do bedside duty and I hadn't seen him in months. So if you eliminate the life-in-danger part, it really was still a great weekend.

Never a dull moment...