Cooper’s Health

Cooper has her blood counts checked at Cook’s by her hematologist every two weeks. For now our appointments are Friday afternoons. The next appointment will be January 23.

Her last ANC (absolute neutrophil count) was 70. It was 110 the previous count, and 50 the count before. According to her doctor, this is really no change. Anything below 500 leaves her in significant risk for infection.

So for now, the plan is to keep her germ free. Our lives have changed somewhat. Cooper is no longer able to go to daycare, she is not able to be around other children, and we have to keep her away from most public places.

Although it is pretty hard to catch a bacterial infection (which she can’t fight against), if she gets a viral infection we have to treat it the same way with a trip to the hospital and lots of medication.

So for now, Amanda Baylor will watch her and split the time with Mimi. As far as Cooper’s concerned, she has no idea her life is different. She is officially a walker, and stumbles around the house like a little drunk person.

Our hospital story:

The entire month of November was rough. Cooper started out with severe diarrhea and a mild fever that caused a horrible diaper rash. We treated the diaper rash and started the BRAT diet. After a few weeks, she was better. Then almost immediately she  began a runny nose and cough with a low fever. All her doctor told us to do was keep her hydrated and use Motrin and Tylenol for the fever. After about two weeks of her staying about the same, we saw the doctor again, who still said we were doing all that we could and she just had a virus.

Around Thanksgiving, she started cutting all 4 top teeth at the same time. On Thanksgiving Day, she developed blood blisters in her mouth. By that Saturday, November 29, her gums were turning white on the top left side. An after-hours call to her doctor helped us decide to bring her to the Urgent Care Clinic for Cook’s Children’s. My husband and I took her on Sunday, November 30, when the clinic opened at 11am. We were seen within the hour. The doctors there had never seen anything like the sore in her mouth. She was immediately started on anti-biotics through an IV  and her blood was tested for infection. After 30 minutes, the doctor returned to tell us Cooper’s blood results were abnormal. This part is still a little blurry. We were told Cooper had an ANC of 200, which should be over 2000. I had never heard the term neutrophil, so I was very confused. The doctor informed us we already had a room waiting for us at Cook’s in downtown Fort Worth where Cooper needed to be seen by an Infectious Disease doctor and a Hematologist.

We were in the hospital for 7 days on an up and down roller coaster trying to find a diagnosis. A bone marrow biopsy was able to provide enough information to leave us with a diagnosis of Autoimmune Neutropenia.

Please check back soon for some updated pictures and video.

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