Whew!

We went to see Braden's specialist today. Braden was diagnosed with is called ITP (idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura). This is an autoimmune disease, which means that Braden's body was attacking the platelets as if they were a foreign body.

His platelet count today was 51,000. Yesterday's was 26,000. The normal range is 150,000 to 400,000. I think that around 20,000 is a danger zone - the paperwork they gave us today said that at 20,000 you can start to bleed for no reason.

Luckily they diagnosed him with this rather quickly. Given that his platelets practically doubled overnight - they say he's doing well and needs no treatment. They are going to monitor his platelets weekly, so that means a blood draw every week. They will stop this when his platelets are acceptable for some time.

The doctor we saw, Dr. Wollman, was excellent. I guess he would have to be to deal with children's blood disorders and cancer. He had a great bedside manner and really just knew his stuff. He said that Braden either had an underlying virus that caused this (not surprising) or he had a reaction to his recent MMR vaccine. I wouldn't be surprised if it was some sort of virus - he had bronchiolitis / RSV and pneumonia in the past 6 months.

So, bottom line is Braden should be fine, and get better on his own! The big danger would be if he hit his head, he could have internal bleeding easier than other kids. It will be hard work to keep a newly walking toddler from climbing, etc!

What a huge relief. I don't know how I'm going to continue to be worried about him every day for the next 17 years... or... well, forever.