Claire's Health

So...things got really crazy.  I took Claire to the doctor on Wednesday because she'd had a low fever since Monday.  I assumed it was because she's getting about 5 teeth at once...but I just wanted to make sure.  Well, at the appointment the doctor decided to follow up on a routine blood test that we'd taken less than a week earlier (routine anemia screening showed moderately low white blood cell count which the pediatrician and I thought was from that cold Claire had on her birthday).  Well, the blood test came back with a really low white blood cell count.  The doctor gave us an antibiotic and told me to come back the next day to make sure the white cell count was going up.

Well...it didn't go up.  It went really, really low. So low that we had to take Claire to the hospital right away.  We stopped at a friend's house and gave Claire a blessing and left Lily to play with her friends.  When we arrived at the hospital they rushed us right in - kinda creepy.  Claire got a bunch of blood drawn to test for various viruses that could have been suppressing her white blood cell production and then she got an IV with a strong antibiotic.  We spent the night....and the next night at the hospital.  On that second day, the doctor told us that Claire's white blood cell count had gone up a tiny bit, but that her platelet count was going down which could indicate Leukemia.  That was really hard to hear.

The good news was that Claire seemed perfectly fine.  I mean, I really didn't think she was sick when I took her to the doctor's office in the first place.  She was so busy at the hospital wanting to walk around and chew on her IV tubes.  The nurses loved her and everyone commented on how healthy she looked.

Finally on the third day they let us go home, even though the white cell count went down again, because the platelets went up a little bit.  The doctor said that she just wasn't sick enough to stay in the hospital (I agreed!).  He told us we had to follow up with the Hematologist/Oncologist at Primary Children's Hospital on Monday morning.

Well, we savored our time at home as much as we could.  I was so scared about the possibility of Leukemia. I went to church to teach our primary lesson and the Sacrament speaker was a woman who had been battling breast cancer for the past year.  She talked about having no white blood cells and the other struggles she faced and it really drove home what we could be facing.  But she also talked about the great love and support she received from the ward.  She focused on Proverbs 3: 5-6 (which was also part of my Primary lesson - not a coincidence) "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

Thinking over what we could be facing helped me to let go and accept the Lord's will.  I realized I may not know why Claire had to face these challenges and what other challenges she might be facing, but that me knowing wasn't the important part.  I needed to have faith, hope, and charity.  That's it.

We took some cute pictures of Lily and Claire in the tub together.  They are both so sweet!