Trip or no trip.....

So, we have a bit of an issue going on in terms of our travel plans.
On June 20, Tailor was diagnosed with ITP(idiopatic thrombocytopenic purpura) which is an autoimmune disease. What led to the diagnosis was 4 serious nosebleeds over the course of a weekend followed by bruising on the bottom of the legs, which I thought was probably a result of her not playing nice in phys. ed class that same week. The following week Tailor came to me and showed me that she could now count 17 bruises from the top of her legs down and she could not explain the majority of them. I told her we would get her in for a doctor visit the following week BUT on Sunday(the 19th), she presented first thing in the morning with a large deep purple bruise on the inside of her forearm that looked as if someone had put a half of a golf ball under her skin. So that afternoon we see our good family friend who is a doc and she recommends blood work first thing Monday morning. Monday morning we see our family doc who recommends the same and by 4:00 we have a diagnosis of ITP and instructions that she is away from hockey for a minimum of 6 weeks, absolutely no contact sports and a referral to see an internist is going to come. Tailor's platelet counts that day were 31, 000(a normal count is between 150,000 and 450,000). The following weeks we saw counts of 48,000 and then 61,000 and now 44,000. The other twist that has come into play is that this week we also saw her white blood cell count go down to 3.7(a normal count is between 4-10, I believe). The explanation I have been given in about ITP in lamens terms is that Tailor would have had a viral infection in her body which her immune system would have been doing it's job by attacking it. For some reason the immune systems started mixing up the platelets with the infection and started attacking them instead, leading to the low platelet count. What we hope is that the body recognizes this and snaps out of it on it's own. For treatment to occur, the platelet count must drop below 30,000.
This latest count, prompted our pediatric internist to advise us that she advised against travel because of insurance reasons. ITP is a pre-existing illness which means that we would have no health insurance for Tailor. Upon finding this out we went into investigation mode and have been assured by both of our carriers that there is no pre-exisiting illness clause for travel within Europe and we would be fully covered for any unforeseen emergency that could arise BUT our doctor needs to deem her safe to travel.
Upon this mornings phone call to our overly awesome pediatric internist who is taking direct calls from me(this normally does not happen) because of the urgency of our situation, she has informed me that we must see what Tai's platelet and wbc counts are next Monday. If her platelet count is below 20,000 she will be deemed unsafe to travel as she is at risk for spontaneous bleeds, also if the wbc count is down we will be immediately referred to a hematologist at Sick Kid's Hospital in Toronto, so we can get down to the bottom of what is really going on.
Now, the blessing is that yes we do have cancellation insurance. It does not reimburse 100% but it will cover up to $600.00 per ticket.
So, now the waiting and numbers game begins and for Tai's sake I pray these numbers increase! She is handling this all fairly well but the thought of not going to see her Swedish and Norwegian brothers is not sitting real well with her, on top of the other things she can not do.

Shelley