Caleb's Mysterious Skintone

Just wanted to let you all know what is going on.  I took Caleb into the doctor’s office this morning because he has been looking a little pale for about 2 months.  He also had some weird symptoms over the weekend when he was hiking (chest pain and stiff legs).  The doctor confirmed that I wasn’t seeing things and that he did indeed have a yellowish tint to his skin.  They sent us to get some blood work done to see if that could tell us anything.

We left the doctor’s office at around 8:15 am and drove home.  I took Brooklin and Caleb to their first day of cross country practice at 9am.  The doctor called me back at 9:20am and told me to take him directly to the ER at Tripler Army Hospital and that his blood work was very concerning.

Caleb had started practice with the other kids (a one mile warm-up), but didn’t make it very far.  Two of the guys had to practically carry him back and he was having the same kind of chest and leg pains and was crying and coughing.  I drove him to the hospital and he was admitted as soon as we arrived.  He said he was feeling fine by the time we got to the hospital, but his blood work said otherwise.  The docs told me that ALL of his blood counts were very low…red cells, white cells, platelets…and that is kind of rare.

At this point, he will be in the hospital until at least Wednesday morning.  This afternoon they are going to start giving him one of several blood transfusions and a platelet transfusion.  (He needs a total of 4 units of blood over the next 20 or so hours).  They are also going to do a procedure on him sometime tomorrow to check how/if his bone marrow is functioning.

We don’t know what kind of diagnosis will come from this, so we don’t want to throw out any of the doctor’s guesses at this point, but none of the things they discussed with us are going to be fun.  Please keep Caleb in your prayers.  He has been pretty upbeat so far…he told me he was a cyborg because of all the wires coming off of him…but if any of the worst things are causing this, he will be in for a long haul.

We are doing ok.  We are seriously hoping that our birthmom stays pregnant this week!!  Pray for her too!  She is having some serious back labor and isn’t due until the 22^nd, so if she can keep baby in it will be a good thing for everyone!

Love you all and thank you for your prayers!

Melissa