Sit Petechia, Sit! Good Boy!

UPDATE: We realized we have spelled Petechia wrong all this time. *Jeeze* But just so you still find our post the wrong way to spell Petechia is Pitikia....but I need to have it in here so you can still find us....here is a few more just in case.....pitikia, pitikia, pitikia, pitikia, pitikia

Have any of you heard of the word Petechia? Now, this is a word they you may here in circles… groups of people talking… “ I know my cousins sisters boyfriend’s little brother had Petechia! “ At first your kinda stunned, what is that?! Its sounds like… well, it sounds like some fruity drink, or maybe it’s a new breed of dog?

You have a Lab? Well check out our cool Petechia breed of dog! They are super fast and the fur is covered in purple spots!

Petechia (GOOGLE’s definition) Small purple spots on the body caused by broken blood vessels.

Petechia (mom’s definition)- thousands of small little bruises that look like what a little red rash would look like, but not red , instead purple & they can be on any part of your body that you have put even the slightest pressure on- like the chain on your neck from your necklace, or glass frames resting on your face.

Petechia happens at any time, it’s a form of bruising. But MOSTLY it happens when you don’t have any platelets left in your blood cells. Platelets are in charge of the “clotting” in your body. When you have a cut, the platelets come to the rescue and stop the bleeding. Did you get smacked by a baseball and now you have a huge bruise? Platelets are what cause the bruise; it’s your body’s “healing” stuff, its your natural superglue.

We knew on this last Fridays appointment that Tucker’s platelets were crashing. They were taking a huge nose dive in the downward direction but he hadn’t quite hit “transfusion” zone yet. So we made an appointment for Monday (yesterday) to recheck blood counts (they knew by then he would need a transfusion) and go over pain management (I wasn’t giving him enough pain meds) and look at his pick line (that is draining out of his insertion site) so we had multiple problems to cover needless to say. But hey, we weren’t admitted and that’s ALWAYS the bright side. Tucker’s platelet count (a normal CBC) showed that he well into the “NEED TRANSFUSION” zone. But we had an appointment for today (Tuesday) for chemo so they got the order in for a bag of platelets to be ready for us first thing this morning.

Now lets circle back to Petechia- the small spots of bruising…. To the “rash” looking like symptoms. Maybe some of you can look at your child’s arm and think “maybe maybe maybe…this is pitikia?”…. so I’m here to help you out with my very photo genetic son. After our Monday appointment and the doc’s had me double up on the dose of morphine for Tucker- Tucker got the “itches” really REALLY bad. Have you ever had the pain meds itches? They SUCK. They are ALL over your body and no matter how much you itch and how HARD you itch they don’t go away. So tucker started to scratch like there was no tomorrow, but he looked at me with a smile and said “even though I itch SO BAD, my pain is gone so I’m OK!”. Now think about this- if you have no platelets, and you’re at the point were a necklace chain could leave a bruise- think of what major itching would look like? Ya, its bad. I have provided pictures. Just keep in mind when you see Tucker’s- ahem- “little” bruising, that the bruises don’t hurt him. This is seriously one of those situations where it LOOKS worse than it actually is.

He got a bag of platelets first thing this morning so they should start to heal everything up.

Some chemo appointments are better than others, today I would rate us on the “worse” side when you take into account puking and pooping and pain and spinal tap- ya, today was not a winner. It just down right sucked- BUT we just keep reminding ourselves- we were not admitted, so its not THAT bad….we were not admitted so it COULD be worse. We are home & just very very tired and poor Tucker looks like he has been put through the ringer. Its days like this that was just awful, that I’m amazed at my son’s strength… I’m just at a loss for words to accurately explain how he can handle all of this, and then sweetly ask me in-between puking his guts out while sitting on the toilet with diarrhea (it was a BAD night), if I could read to him his new book his teacher, Mrs. Shipman, brought over to him while he was getting sick. So I sucked up strength, determined to be as strong as him, and sat by him on the bathroom floor & read to him while he was so very very very very sick. It helped, I think. I just had to read very loud so he could hear me over his puking. Yes, Tucker is on heavy anti-nauseating meds, he’s on very very very heavy anti-nauseating meds…. But sometimes they just don’t kick in at the right time, and honestly- you just feel better after you puke. He is resting now, feeling much better. Love to all, Amber, Tucker & Justin

Tucker's Petechia
 Petechia

 Petechia

Platelet Transfussion, Yes it is yellow blood

Chemo today, Tucker taking a nap