What's Going On?

Saturday Rowan looked less than stellar. I was on the phone all day with Houston (a new person there) trying to decide what to do. Her color was off, throwing up, drowsy, and just not herself.

We could have taken her to Austin, but Chance and I felt like that would be reinventing the wheel seeing as how we just left Houston and were home for just nearly 24hrs.

When Tylenol did not help her fever, we opted to drive to Houston.

It was a hard trip. Rowan was so sick again. The normally 3 1/2 hr trip took just 2 1/2. (we were going a little fast. And we even got pulled over. But no ticket!)

As soon as we stepped foot in the er, they whisked Ro to the trauma room. The nurses and physicians swarmed on her. She looked so bad. They started two iv's so fast (each one on the first try), we were in shock.... And we all know how hard she is to stick...

She looked like death, literally.

After the dust settled, her hemoglobin, which was 9.5 when we left, was 3.

She was admitted to the PICU in the wee hours of the morning.






(so, so, so sick)

The issue we had the previous admission was getting blood that was cross-matched appropriately. It took 20hrs if you recall then because Rowan has built up antibodies.

[In a basic nutshell it means that Rowan's body will attack the blood she receives due to these antibodies unless it is matched just right.]

She is also Coombs positive for you med folks.

So- in just the day we were gone Rowan had built up these antibodies to the blood that they had just given her when we were last in the hospital! The blood that she received today had to be air flighted in from Galveston.

And even still her hemoglobin was barely increasing today.

Most of our physicians were stumped until we spoke with our hematology mds this afternoon.

They have diagnosed her with autoimmune hemolytic anemia.

For some reason, in which they are not sure of right now, Rowan's body has basically decided to turn and fight her own red blood cells. Only her red blood cells are being affected- both nature and young cells. It could be from a possible infection that brought on this turn of events, but they said they have also seen a small group of liver transplant patients develop this autoimmune disorder.

This could be a temporary or chronic problem.

We will not know until we see how she responds to treatment.
She will be getting IV steroids to stop her body from breaking down (lysing or killing) these red blood cells.

Hopefully this works because it is just too complicated to describe the other options in the blog.

Chance and I feel all of the love you guys have shown! We have such peace about this situation, and we know the Lord is carrying us through.

We have a double miracle baby- she never ceases to amaze us.

Tomorrow will bring all new physicians since it's Monday... Excited to learn more and see our girl make some progress!







(lovin' her oral care)