Update on Carter

Terry and I had concerns about Carter not having a stool since Saturday morning at 3 a.m. (Feb. 27) and also he was appearing more yellow.  I called the doctor's office (on Mar. 2) and asked some questions and expressed my concerns.  They called back and told us we could give him a suppository and that they called in an order to the hospital to have another bili ruben test.  So Tuesday afternoon we went in for another bili ruben test at the hospital with Carter. (We had to do this quite often with Olivia, too, when she was born.) The counts came back quite high yet they sent us home. Later that evening the doctor's office called and asked to bring Carter in for an evaluation. It was then decided that his counts were high enough that he needed to be re-admitted to FCHC and but under the light. Carter and I stayed at the hospital on Tuesday night. They also did routine blood work to check for dehydration or anemia. Well, Wednesday morning the doctor came in an informed me that also in the blood work they found an unexpected concern. The CBC blood test showed that his platelet counts were extremely low (57,000). FCHC did a little more blood work, and tried to do additional but were unsuccessful at drawing it. They could not find the cause of the low counts. So, we were then hooked up with a NICU specialist at Toledo Hospital. They sent a medivac team to FCHC to draw blood put in an IV and transport him to Toledo. We arrived here around 3:30 p.m. (Mar. 3). Carter was put on a light blanket for his jaundice and has had multiple blood tests.  They recheck his counts every 12 hours with blood tests.  Poor guy! We saw a lot of positive improvements with him. His platelet counts continued to increase on there own, however they are still not at a normal level. His jaundice counts have decreased so he no longer has to be wrapped in a light blanket. They did another blood test at 5 a.m. on Friday and his bili ruben was down to 11.6.  They tried to check his platelet counts but his blood kept clotting.  They tried again at 7:00 a.m. and we found that his platelet counts were up to 97,000 so we were going to get to go home!! (100,000-150,000 is the normal range) They still do not know the cause of the low counts and we may never know.  It may be a viral thing that he may have gotten during delivery or after or may also have to do with my (Carissa's) blood type and his.  We had not seen any symptoms at home for this low platelet count (which would have been red dots/scratches on the skin). We are thankful that we had to go in for the jaundice and it was found through the additional blood work. We still have many unanswered questions but are relying on prayer and God's hand in all of this for protection and continued healing.

**Our first night back home from the NICU he slept from 11:00 p.m.-4:15 a.m. and then again from 5:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m. Both in his cradle and not needing to be held (so different from his big sis!)