Message from Nike's Dad

Our baby girl has been hospitalized three times since February 25th due to dangerously low red blood cell and platelet counts. She is currently at a non-specialty emergency hospital where she received a third transfusion on March 3rd. We have insurance for her that has covered 60% of the first two hospitalizations but it’s the type of plan that requires us to pay for the visits in full before submitting a claim. This has become a challenge to keep up with and we’re asking for help to cover her on-going treatment plan.

The doctors believe she has a bleed in her GI tract and the theory is that she is dealing with an autoimmune disease of some kind. They have her on a cocktail of meds and are prepared to give her more transfusions, if necessary. They tell us that the more aggressive types of autoimmune disorders might take two weeks to show effects of the meds and we are determined to fight with our baby girl as long as they tell us there’s a chance to fight this.

Her primary vet thought it was in line with Evans Syndrome after we went Tuesday, February 24th, and received comprehensive blood results Wednesday. She sent us a plan of attack that included Prednisone but said her platelets were so low she could spontaneously bleed. I asked if it was prudent to just take her to the ER and she said yes so I rushed her there.

At the ER they did an ultrasound and said she probably had a ruptured tumor in her spleen and needed surgery. She had a blood transfusion that night to prepare her for surgery but the following morning we were called and told they couldn’t proceed because her platelets were too low. They apparently rechecked the ultrasound, did a tfast ultrasound that found no internal bleeding, and determined it must have been another cause.

She was transferred to internal medicine and didn’t receive prednisone until Friday evening. Saturday morning they called and said her counts were low but stable at 18% (platelets at 20-30,000) and that we could pick her up and administer the meds ourselves with her food. She refused to eat that night and it took us three hours to get her to take the meds. The following morning her appetite was worse and we rushed her back to the ER where they saw that her red blood cell count had dropped from 18% to 10%. This was Sunday. We approved a second transfusion and her count only increased to 13%. When it dropped to 10% by 4pm on Monday afternoon they told us they had no more blood and that more transfusions may not work because of how poorly she responded to the last one. They referred us to a non-specialty hospital that had plenty of blood if we decided to go that route.

We decided to bring her home, she ate, and we spent a beautiful night together. Unfortunately, with her appetite nonexistent the following morning we quickly realized we were approaching the end and the thought of not trying one more time quickly became something we knew we’d always question and/or regret.

We rushed her to the hospital that was referred to us by her internal medicine specialist at the previous ER and she received another blood transfusion and her levels rose from 8% to 22%. The following morning her levels had slightly decreased to 20% and the doctors started to suspect bleeding in her GI tract. They started new meds that are supposed to line the small intestines and reduce acidity in the stomach with the hopes that it solves part of the issue.

This very well might not work but we’re fighting till they tell us there’s no hope.