This morning we took Max, my seven year old, in for a follow up appointment. At his emergency room trip a couple of weeks ago, they found that he had an alarmingly low platelet count in his bloodstream ( a count of 40,000 when normal is around 150,000). We went in for some bloodwork last week, and it was still low. So we went in this morning, and it’s moving steadily up – this is really, really good news. It means that he’s probably just had a virus that wiped out his platelet count, and that it’ll self-correct in the next 4 to 6 weeks. This is much much better than some of the other options that involve the body either not making enough platelets, or self-destroying more platelets than it should be. They’re pretty sure it’s just a simple “this happens to a lot of kids” thing, but we’ll have to go back in a month to make sure. Needless to say, hearing that it’s almost definitely nothing was a tremendous relief. This week has been very, very stressful with worry about what it might be. Of course we tried not to worry, since it doesn’t help anything, but when the doctors say “Take him to Dr. So-and-so at the Cancer Center” your heart stops. Thankfully, the best outcome was what we got.

The doctors at the U of M hospital that we went to this morning, in the Cancer Center, were just incredible. Dr. Pawar was kind to Max, engaging, comforting, thorough and spent a bunch of time with us talking on a level we could understand, not talking down to us. I am truly appreciative of her wonderful way with her patients (and their terror-stricken parents.)

And now, the funny story about the trip: Dr. Pawar was great with Max during his exam, and as they talked she learned of his fondness for video games. When she was done with him, she sat him in front of the computer in the exam room, and connected to disney.com and told him he could sit and play a couple of games while she talked with Mom and Dad. He sat there playing as we spoke, and Dr. Pawar had a good view of what he was doing on the screen, but we didn’t. After she’d eased our minds, she left the room for a minute. When she did, I checked on Max, and he had gotten bored with Disney.com, and had switched to a website his cousins had shown him: miniclips.com.

While we were talking with the doctor, he had been playing an online version of Presidential Street Fight! When I checked to see what he was doing, he was playing Barack Obama, and was in the process of getting his ass kicked by a computer animated Hillary Clinton!

?!?!?!?!

I had to work hard not to laugh my butt off as we had a brief refresher course on what was appropriate and what was NOT!! *laughing* Favorite Max quote from the exchange: Man, that old lady was killing me!! *facepalm*

So – a good day, full of relief and laughs. And thanks, once again, to everyone who posted comments and sent emails, text messages or positive energy during Max’s emergency room visit – it was truly, truly appreciated!