a NEW diagnosis... sort of

Hey everyone, Jasper's mom here again. Okay, so it has been a very long week and a half here in our house. Again, please bear with me because this is gonna be another long one...

So on Friday (8/9/2013) Jasper and I went in for his first check-up since the original diagnosis of IMHA. They were checking his bloodwork again to see if his RBC count was coming up like it needed to be. Unfortunately those were not the results we got. His RBC's had dropped AGAIN , from 29% to 25%... not good. And his WBC count had skyrocketed up past normal levels, which meant that the few RBC"s that his body was making were getting attacked by his WBC. Again, not good. And you guessed it, I had a breakdown right there our little room. The Dr scheduled another appointment for the following Monday (8/12/2013) to do an ultrasound to see if anything was missed from the xray they had done the week before. (His belly was too full for them to really see anything that morning which is why another one was scheduled for Monday.) And she also put him on an additional medication meant to fight any type of parasites or infections that could have possibly come from a tick or something of the like. We went home and took it easy over the weekend and then went in on Monday morning. Another round of bloodwork was sent off to the lab this time (to save a little money) and the ultrasound came up clean, nothing that they could see to indicate why his RBC count isn't coming up. The Dr called yesterday and had his new bloodwork results. While it's not bad news, it's still not an answer. His RBC count only went down 1% and she was okay with that because his WBC count had also come back down. The WBC's are now at a normal level which could give the RBC's a fighting chance, and it also gives us a little more time to figure out what is going on. She also spoke with 2 specialists reguarding his condition and after the consult they are all leaning AWAY from the IMHA being the primary diagnosis (meaning this was NOT caused by a vaccine). They think that the anemia is now secondary to something else like an ulcer or GI bleed that they can't see on the ultrasound. So we are going in on Saturday (8/17/2013) for another full panel bloodwork (they haven't done a full panel since 7/30/2013) so they can check all of his levels again and they are also going to put him on 2 additional meds for a possible ulcer. They are also going to start weening him off of 1-2 of his other meds.

So again, this is where we are right now. He's not stable just yet, he's kind of plateaued and his Dr and I are okay with that for right now, again it gives us a little more time to figure out what is actually going on. He's been a little perkier lately and is playing with toys again. We are taking it one day at a time... :)

Thank you so much for all of the prayers, thoughts and well wishes. We have noticed that a lot of you have been sent over by Baxter and we are very grateful for the support.

Until the next update...