Texas Children's Hospital

Tuesday, December 13th was our appointment at Texas Children's in Houston with our Hematologist/ Oncologist, Dr. Mona Shah. The drive was nerve wrenching. The closer we got, the tears started flowing. The place is amazing for children. However, you could just see the sadness in all the parents eyes. There were volunteers there handing out toys in the waiting area. When we sat down they immediately came up to Pax and asked her if she picked out a toy. I just kept thinking, I cannot believe we are here and my baby is one of the patients. I am grateful for the way they treat the children, I just want every child to be healthy and never have to go through anything like this. I am not sure if I am making sense or not, but if you have ever had to take your child to a cancer treatment center, you understand what I am saying/feeling.

When we met Dr. Shah, the first thing she said was that she was seeing us as a Hematologist and not an Oncologist. She does not think Paxton has cancer. I need them to keep telling me this over and over because I keep seeing these horrible diagnoses. She said that 90% of the appointment was to see how Paxton interacted with her and us. They took more blood from Paxton but this time the pricked her finger. She didn't even flinch!! She sat there and watched them squeeze every drop of blood they needed out while eating goldfish with her other hand. I can not even stress the difference between that and them taking it out of her arm and 3 people having to hold her down. Paxton's neutrophil count came back as 0 (zero). I will post more info on all of this later but anything less than 500 is severe, 1500 is normal.

So we went through several questions and I probably left more confused. It was good to hear her rule out some of the things I had researched. I asked her again the chances of this being cancer and she said, "less than 1%. If she thought Paxton had cancer she would immediately be admitting us." We were given a prescription for lab work 2x a week over the next 6 weeks and we are to keep a journal of how she feels/her temps. From my research, this is a pretty standard place to start. They are looking to see if there is any type of cycle your body has on producing neutrophils. From what I understand, if they do not get answers this way, a bone marrow biopsy will be next.

If Paxton gets a temp of 101 or higher we still have to go to the hospital. They will do a CBC and a blood culture and then will decide if she needs an antibiotic shot or if we should be admitted and she should be hooked up to an antibiotic IV. We will be living a pretty sheltered life for now. We will not be able to attend church, go to play areas, or visit family for Christmas. We have to stay away from anyone who may be sick and just be very cautious of everything we do. I pray that it will only be for now and that one day we will back to a more normal life.

We left the hospital with feelings of sorrow for the parents that do have to make that long walk to get admitted because they are told their child does have cancer. We are still unbelievably scared and worried but grateful at the same time. Miss Paxton left the hospital with a hot pink band-aid and 3 new toys.