Everything you've never wanted to know about anemia

Yesterday was Bryce's 18 month well-baby appointment. The issues I have been having with Bryce :

• he eats through cardboard books like they are hamburgers. Seriously....this kid loves paper/ cardboard books. He chewed through the entire spine of a book the other day.
• really puffy/dark under eye circles
• severe separation anxiety- to the point where he does not even want me to set him down. He screams and cries and wants to be held all the time
• seems to not be growing all that well. He has hardly gained a pound in almost a year
• his walking is still real tipsy

Dr Kruggel thought he looked really pale, so she ordered a blood test to see what his iron level was. Normal children have a level of around 11-15, anything between 8 - 11 is considered anemic. Bryce's test came back at a 3, so she actually thought the machine was broken. "It has to be broken. If his iron levels were at a three, he would be laying on the floor lethargic, not walking around,"she said. We were sent to the lab to get a full blood screeen (CBC) and an accurate iron level count.

Around 8 pm last night, Dr. Kruggel called our house to let me know that there was not enough blood drawn so the CBC test was unreadable. His iron level came back at a 2.

*Anemia is where the red blood cells in your body are low, and this is usually due to some disease or deficiency. The job of red blood cells, for those of you like me that do not know:-), is to carry oxygen to your tissue and organs.

The three main reasons your red blood count would be low are 1) if your body destroys red bloods cells, like with sickle cell anemia or thalassemia 2) with severe blood loss or 3) failure to produce red blood cells due to high levels of an iron deficiency, certain types of leukemia, or lead poisoning. Dr. Kruggel thought that his levels were too low to just be related to nutrition and lack of iron in his diet. Something else was wrong....but what?

I spent the entire night watching Bryce wondering what.

This morning we went to the lab bright an early to get a rush on new blood work. 10am the blood was sent to the lab for diagnosing. By 11, the doctor had already called us to let us know Bryce needed to go to DeVos to see a hematologist immediately.

The Hematology department is joint with the pediatric oncology department, so I must say I was very overwhelmed immediately upon arrival seeing the various patients going through chemotherapy. Most of them under five years of age. They took Bryce for more blood work, and by this point both baby and mom were in tears.

We finally got to meet with the hematologist after a few hours, and there was good news and bad news. Since Bryce does not have any other symptoms of leukemia, she did not think it was that. Which is a HUGE praise, because that was one of my biggest fears. Mom Worry took over last night, and the extremely low red blood cell counts made me wonder what the heck was going on. It still can not be completely ruled out without a bone marrow biopsy, but for right now they do not think it is leukemia.

The bad news is that his body is lacking so much iron that his heart is compromised. It is working way too hard right now. The hematologist said that if we would not have caught it, within the next two weeks, she is certain he would have had total heart failure. His heart rate is extremely high and a heart murmor was detected.

He is losing blood in his stool, so that is also cause for concern.

She also said that should have have even a minor accident- falling down or really any situation in where he started bleeding-it is very likely that he would not survive it. He just does not have the reserves to fight it.

The body is an amazing, incredible thing though. The doctor said that normally someone with an iron level as low as Bryce-y-Boys would be lethargic, so this must have started about six months ago and his body has adjusted to it over time. For him to be walking and talking and playing with such a compromised system is incredible.

I was told that all of the things I described- the lack of growing, eating cardboard, pale complexion which I thought was allergies but is really because his blood is so thin, the separation anxiety---all of them should start to get better (hopefully!). He just has felt miserable for so long without any of us knowing it.

I could play the what if game forever, but needless to say I am very thankful we brought him in when we did. The next week is critical- he needs to get iron in his system and stay clear of other illness. We should know more on Tuesday when we run more blood work. We can expect a lot of blood tests in the future and much monitoring to make sure his heart is getting better and stronger. I will be avoiding germs and accidents at all costs, to say the least!

Thank you for praying for Bryce. I would love your continued prayers, as his little heart is working overtime right now. Please pray that the iron supplements work and he starts to feel better. Thanks:-)