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Bloodwork, bloodwork, and more bloodwork

When Beckett was in the NICU, he was getting his foot pricked multiple times a day. They were constantly monitoring his sugars, bilirubin levels, and checking his levels on his new medication. He has always taken it like a champ. Once we were discharged, he continued getting weekly bloodwork. He's always done so well. Usually when a tech would call us, you could see the immediate apprehension of having to draw from a baby but he surprised them every time.

At the end of March, right before I left for Houston, we had bloodwork done to check Beckett's blood count. I got those results back and it was too low so we had to stop his medicine...again. That meant we would wait a week and check again to see if it had gone back up. Knowing I was going to be in Houston and away from our usual lab, we could either find a labcorp in Houston and have the results faxed to Beckett's doctor, or drive to Brenham where the closest Baylor Scott & White clinic was. I chose to find a LabCorp.

So a week later, we went to a LabCorp. I made the first available appointment I could in the morning, and we headed that way. We were called back for our turn, while there were 4 other people in the waiting room. The shock on the woman's face when I told her the bloodwork was for the baby in my arms rather than for myself, was something I will not forget. She just couldn't believe that I had brought in a two month old to get labs done, and it was clear that was going to be an issue. They put us in one room, before quickly moving us to another. A different tech came in and told me she was going to get through everyone in the waiting room, and then she would come help me. I was already annoyed, but Beckett was asleep in my arms and that was the only reason I was fine waiting. She got through everyone else and it was finally our turn. After fiddling with the paperwork trying to understand what the actual order was, she got all her tools and was ready to begin.

Now like I said previously, Beckett has had a lot of bloodwork done. Like a lot. They prick once, squeeze blood into the tube and are done. So when this woman pricked his foot twice I was very confused. She's trying to squeeze blood into the vial, but it's coming from two different holes, it's just a mess. She's trying to handle this equipment with gloves, but her hands are covered in blood because she pricked him twice. Beckett is screaming in agony. I wasn't convinced she had done this to an infant before.

When I got home, I told my parents about the experience and was adamant that I wouldn't be going back there. Fast forward to getting those results, and his count being even lower. I wasn't ready to go back to Fort Hood, so I guess we'd be having to go back to LabCorp.

I made another appointment for first thing in the morning. This time when she opened the door, I cheerfully said "we're baaaack!". At least this time she knew what to expect and didn't insist on clearing out the waiting room before our turn. She gathered everything up and got started. With two heel pricks again. Why? I have no idea. She collected blood through Beckett's screams, turned to her coworker and asked "is that enough" to which the coworker quickly responded positively and we were on our way.

The following day, we got those results. They didn't collect enough, so they could not complete the test. That meant we would have to get a check again, but I refused to put Beckett through that again. That meant we had to come back home to our usual lab where I am confident in their ability to get what they need from him. 

We drove back home and the following day went to our usual lab. They got the blood in what felt like less than 5 seconds and were done. What's the moral of this story? We're never going to LabCorp again.

After all this chaos, and three weeks off his medicine, his count has gone from 500 up to 1220 (he has to be greater than 1000 to continue) so he is able to be back on his medicine. The difficult part is he'll get back on his medicine, it will kill his cells again, and his count will likely get too low to continue. It's an endless cycle until the end of July but he is such a trooper for everything he has been through!





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