The story of how we first found out that we would start this adventure.

Cameron was diagnosed the Monday after Easter Sunday, April 9th 2012.  On the Thursday before Easter I came home from work at noon and asked his dad if he looked pale to him.  Cameron was getting over a cold that the whole family had.  He was the last one of the family & it was hanging on a bit. He had a little cough that was improving daily, but just looked like he was the usual run down from a cold.  Nothing stood out from any other cold but that he looked pale & a little more wanting mom.  He was still up and around wrestling with the twins, playing & being a goofy kid.  The next day Friday before Easter, he said "owie ear" once.  So, we thought "ok, no wonder he is pale he must have an ear infection on top of a cold. If he says it again we will take him in". He never said it again that day.  The next day was Saturday before Easter, so we had a big day planned of egg hunts ect.  He was having a great time keeping up, hunting eggs, just one of the kids. He said "owie ear" again that morning, so I took him to immediate care right away. The doctor looked in his ear and gave us a prescription for Amoxicillin & said "have a nice day"!!  Then Easter Sunday night after a big day he still looked pale to us.  I thought,"he has had 4 doses of Amoxicillin, the cough is better why is he so pale still? If he is not better after a good nights sleep I am taking him in first thing in the morning to the pediatrician Dr. Metzler".  That morning he was still pale so I got the first appointment of the day.  Dr. Metzler knew the second that she saw him, but did the blood test to confirm.  We went to the emergency room and they made all of the arrangements to have the "Panda Team" ambulance take us to OHSU Dornbechers right away.They said we caught it in time. That it was good he was seen so quickly & that it comes on so fast. If we had tested the week before it may not have shown up. The scary part was that normal platelet counts (help you clot from a cut or bruise) are 100 to 300, his were 9 and we didn't even know it.  His white blood cells (fights infection) normal is 20,000 or less, his were 91,00! It was amazing to us that he could be that sick and still up & around playing, and being a kid & no fever.  Even the immediate care doctor missed it. Cameron was in the hospital for a week the first time and that is the story of how we knew we were about to start this adventure.