My son is almost 11 months old and has been very sick the past few days. He has been given 2 shots of rosefen * i can't spell it* now for severe ear infections and gastroenteritis *sp?* so naturally today we check for dehydration and they say his blood cell count is 13 which is no suprise to me he is sick.. but his platelets is a 6 which is SEVERELY bad. My father is a lab technician and runs the chem dept so he told me somethings to look for but i was wondering if anyone else has gone through this? I was told the infection could be doing this to him also? He has problems with clotting very fast since birth.. i mean its nothing for him to bleed 10 mins before clotting. He goes back thurs for further testing. So any ideas other than leukemia and hemophelia?
A friend of mine who works at the daycare told me about little boy in her infant class who just was having the same problems. He had 3 year infections in the past 2 months, got stuffed with different medicines and it coused his counts get low.Too much medicine.........
I am a Hematology supervisor and a Med tech like your dad. I have seen severely low platelet counts in viral illnesses. You can see that in leukemia, but instead of being mildly elevated the white count is usually severely elevated. Hemophilia is a disease of the clotting factors, not of platelets, so I don't think that is it either. My guess is a viral illness, but they will probably call it ITP or Idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura, meaning they don't know why. They may give him steroids to boost his platelets. One of my good friend's 2 year old daughter had this several years ago. She was hospitalized for a couple of days, then we drew her blood every week to monitor her platelets. They eventually corrected themselves and she is a very healthy 7 year old now. My only question is how did they draw the blood. In an infant, the blood is quite often draw as a finger poke which can enduce clotting in the tube prior to running the sample. This would severely lower the platelet count prior to running the sample and every thing would be ok in your son.
J.,
I am so sorry you are faced with this scary situation, and will send healing light to you and your son.
I don't know about leukemia or hemophilia, but since you mentioned gastroenteritis, I wanted to mention a condition called eosinophilic gastroenteritis. You can learn more aboutit at www.apfed.org. APFED stands for the American Partnership For Eosinophilic Disorders. My son has eosinophilic esophagitis. I also wonder if the combination gastroenteritis and ear infections could be an indication of allergies.
All the best,
C.
Hi J.,
vonWillebrands Disease could be another possibility if he has had bleeding issues since birth. There are 3 "levels", I personally have it as do all 3 of my children.
A couple of links to copy and paste into your browser.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Willebrand_disease
http://www.haemophilia.org.za/Vonherit.htm
Hopefully, it will just be related to the Rocephin and illness but since your little one has had issues since birth it is worth looking in to. vonWillebrands disease is one of the most under-diagnosed disorders.
Take Care!
Hello J.,
You might have him checked for ITP (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura). It is a blood disease that my brother has and it sounds like it could be what your child has. I know quite a bit about it as my brothere was diagnosed at the age of three and is now in his thirties. It is not a common blood disease and many docotrs still do not seem to know alot about it. I remember when we first moved to a new area the doctor literally called to get help from the closest Childrens Hospital. He had never had any body with the disease come to him. My brothers platelets get really low, he gets these little tiny purple spots at the surface of his skin. The docotors said that he is bleeding internally and the spots are actually tiny bruises of sorts any way he has trouble with bleeding and CAN NOT have any kind of asprin as it makes the condition worse. He has to be really careful not to have any medicines that contain asprin. He is usually hospitilized each time the blood disease flairs up. Of course getting diagnosed with what he could have is the biggest step.
Hi J.,
I know infections can do a lot of things to your blood. This is not an area that I am completely familiar with but I do know that meds sometimes exacerbate problems. Go to http://www.rxlist.com/rocephin-drug.htm There are some blood related side effects to the rocephin that you mentioned as well as gastro problems as well. God bless!
M.
I dont know about all the stuff you are talking about but i do know that my daughter is the same way with clotting i mean a finger prick from the doctor will make her bleed for 15 mins. its very scary however the doctor says its nothing to worry about. good luck hun!
My nephew, now almost 11 and very healthy, had neutropenia(sp?) for several years when he was little. He would have really bad cold-like or flu-like symptoms, his blood counts would drop horribly, spend a few days in the hospital and then come out again feeling good. He would usually be put into a special room - isolated from everything so he didn't get any other bugs. It took several years - and several days/nights at the hospital per year - but he now has normal blood counts. He basically just had to outgrow it.
Go to WebMD.com they have a lot of information on most things.
