It's. Just. Not. Simple.

Just when we thought maybe home by this weekend... Wrong.

Reticulocytes: immature red blood cells.

Several weeks ago in PICU, Rowan's reticulocyte count was practically non-existent. This meant that her body was attacking the mature and immature red blood cells making it impossible for her hemoglobin (red blood cell count) to come up.
Now her reticulocyte count is too high. Good grief Charlie Brown! Why can't this just be simple?

It is good that Rowan now has reticulocytes because she is able to support her own hemoglobin count without needing transfusions.

However, the increased number is now concerning. Her body has basically been in overdrive working very hard to make these new red blood cells. And it looks as though she's not enjoying all of the fruit of her little body's labor.
For her reticulocyte count to be so high, they would expect her hemoglobin to also be higher than it is.
In conclusion: her body is still attacking her red blood cells, just at a much slower rate than in the weeks past.

The goal was to wean the steroids, which she has been on for over two weeks now, but it appears that would not be a good idea at this time given her current situation.

Rituximab: a potent drug, appears to be our next option. It wipes out all of your good and bad B Cells (yet another component).

Tomorrow they will make the call as to if we will proceed with this option, so I will post more tomorrow if this is the route we go.

Earlier in the day some child life friends watched Rowan while Chance and I ran a quick errand-- together. It was so nice to have a few minutes alone out of the hospital!

Here are some photos of Ro while we were out:





Sorry they are sideways:/

The formula restrictions overnight were a little troublesome. Poor RoBaby gets woken up so frequently for meds, vital signs, and the pump alarm that it's difficult to get back to sleep. Usually it requires some food... So you see our issue.

Our GI doctor came by to visit Rowan today just to chat and see how she was doing. We absolutely love him! How blessed we are to have someone who cares for Rowan so much be her primary MD.