His appointment was pretty routine, but then the dr. said that Gregory looked pale to him, which was something my dad had commented on a month earlier. When my dad said it, I literally laughed about it because neither me nor my husband are dark complected. So when the dr. brought it up, I still wasn't very alarmed, but he insisted that Gregory was paler than he was on his 4 month appointment, so he did a test to check his hemoglobin levels. Turned out that Gregory was severely anemic. For his age he should have a count of 12 and his count was 4. Because he's been developing so well, gaining weight, and been active, they believe it was something that happened slowly over time and his body was able to compensate for the low levels. We also learned that it's very easy for this to happen to preemies, as babies store up much of their iron during the later stages of pregnancy. Since he missed out on two months of that, he didn't have much stored-up.
So after spending three days in Texas Children's Hospital, Gregory having given 8 viles of blood and three hemoglobin tests, they were able to rule out any kind of cancer or "exotic" diseases and it was determined that he has "iron deficiency anemia." We are praising God that it isn't something more serious and that it can easily be handled with some iron supplements.
BTW... They are maxing out the amount of iron they can give him and it's so nasty. Wes and I both tasted a tiny bit and it tastes like you'd imagine rust tasting like. After he takes it, his mouth smells like he's had a mouth full of pennies and his poop... Ohmigosh... horrific! They smell like poopy metal. He's a trooper though and takes it like a little man. Here are a few pictures of our brave little boy in the hospital...
6 comments:
so glad to hear that he is ok!! praise God!
praise jesus he is doing so well and it was nothing more serious! It is such a huge blessing to have TX Children's in this area!
Wow...a bit of a scare...but I'm glad he's doing ok. Take care of that little guy! I'm glad he actually will TAKE the iron...yuck! hahah!
Glad that he is doing better what a little trooper and Cortlyn had to take the iron supplement when he was nine months old and yes it is nasty. I would mix it in cereal and even then he would hardly touch it and I got really bad about giving it to him what a naughty mommy I am. I will pray that Gregory continues to do well.
Oh Melissa... I had no idea til I just got your email... I am behind on reading your blog. You must've been so scared, but yeah for our pedi redeeming himself! :-)
I'm so grateful that's all it was but that you even had to worry it was cancer or an "exotic" illness... oh my gosh... and for 3 days??????... ((((HUGS))))
The iron sounds lovely. At least he'll be too young to remember it! LOL!
Yeah, Evyn had to take iron supplements for a while when she was little for anemia...AND I had to take her to get blood drawn once a month for a while. Hope he's doing better and getting those levels up!
Also, way to go for your dr. to notice from an appointment two months prior!
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