Kid's Stories

Longer Stories

Caelen - A tale of bad and good luck with a happy ending.

Nico's Story - This is a story with many lessons for the whole family

Having a life with ITP

Erin - 6

Erin was diagnosed with ITP and had platelet counts in the 10K - 15K range when she was 3. We saw a variety of doctors with a wide range of approaches (Erin's mom is a healthcare professional). Today, Erin's count is consistently normal.
We think that the key to Erin's recovery (counts in the 150K - 300k range for well over a year) was the use of Dr. Ba's Get Well International ITP and Bloodwell herbs. The herbs worked only after we administered them with 100% consistently  twice a day. We used about one-third of the adult dose, although Dr. Ba's recommended dose was one-half of adult dose. The ITP caps were put in applesauce and the Bloodwell was made into a flavored syrup. On a few occasions we tried to 'wean' Erin off of one or the other herb mixture or to reduce both. On every occasion, except the last, her count dropped.
After almost 18 months on the herbs, Erin got a bad sinus infection. While she was taking the antibiotics and other meds, we stopped the herbs entirely. Her count has not dropped in the past several months since we stopped the herbs.

In addition to the herbs, we also used the following other changes during Erin's recovery:
1. small monthly doses of phosphorus
2. more vegetables
3. less sugar
4. avoidance of allergens (Erin's allergies and the ITP may have been closely related)
4. a daily effort at stress reduction
5. positive thinking about our eventual success

We are not sure if we were lucky or just able to put together the right combination of factors - it was probably both - but we would recommend this approach to parents of ITP kids.

Erin's Parents (scottsdalehomes@yahoo.com)

We had tremendous results treating the ITP of young Austin Taylor(11) with acupuncture and herbology.  The Doctor was C.S. Chen of Dublin Ohio (614 ) 764-9500.

Austin's platelet count was down from 7 to 5 when he was in the hospital. They were ready to transfuse, then remove the spleen when I called Dr. Chen. He does not treat children but since this was life threatening and I was his student he made an exception. He first told me to chop garlic cloves and make a poultice and hold them on the soles of his feet (on the kidney point Yonquan)for 30 minutes to an hour. For the first time in a week the poultice did what no doctor in the hospital could, stop the profuse flow of blood from his nose!

The hospital’s use of steroids, globulin treatments, nasal packings, and I.V.'s not only made him miserable but allowed his condition to go from bad to critical. Within three weeks of acupuncture and two rounds of potent Chinese herbs (thank you Min Tong Ent.) Austin’s blood count was returning to normal. He was back in school, with a spleen, and was being weaned from the steroids which eventually caused him to gain over thirty pounds!

Needless to say if we had not removed him from the hospital and allowed Dr. Chen to treat him there is no idea where he would be today. Too bad we still have a hospital bill for 20,000 dollars for the worst week of the poor child’s life!

Susan and Matt sqatdt@aol.com

Zach

My son, Zach, was first diagnosed with ITP in 1995. He was 2 1/2 years old at the time. He presented with many bruises all over his legs. Since he was an active toddler, we thought that they were from falling and bumping into things. At a check-up for my older son, I happened to show our pediatrician his legs. He took one look at him, and said that was not normal. He sent us for bloodwork and we went home. Later that evening, he called us at home and told me not to let him fall or bump his head. His platelet count was at 50,000. Trying to keep a toddler from playing is almost impossible. We went on several walks, making sure he was strapped in tight in his stroller. The next morning we went back to the hospital (which was over an hour away) to have his platelets checked again. They were down to 22,000. Our Dr. assured us that he thought it was ITP, but he sent us on to a University Hospital which was another 3 hours away. By the time we got there, he had bruising around his ankles where his socks were in contact with his skin. We saw a haematologist, who examined him and started him on IVIG. The following three days, his platelets continued to rise. We were sent home, relieved that the ordeal was over.

A month later, we were coming home from a weekend trip when Zach's nose started to bleed. We had trouble stopping it, and since we weren't far from our pediatrician's office, we drove to see him. After bloodwork, we were told that his platelets had dropped again. He was given another dose of IVIG and we were sent back to University Hospital - this time to have a bone marrow test done. Thank God, it came back negative. We continued on this roller coaster ride for about 9 more months - receiving about 7 more gamma globulin treatments. Each time he received them, his platelets would go up. Then about a month later would drop fairly low again. Finally, his platelets started to stabilize. They were never in the normal range, but they stayed around 50,000. As he grew older, his counts started to slowly rise until they finally reached that "magical number" - over 150,000. He was finally in remission!

Which brings us to this point in time (February 2004). Well, it's been 9 years since he was originally diagnosed with ITP. We've stopped worrying about him, but it is always in the back of our mind. He's now 11 years old and once again, we find an excessive amount of bruising on his legs. He has just finished a round of antibiotics - had a bacterial throat infection. His legs are black and blue from his thighs down. He is very depressed and worried - he knows it is back! After a CBC, we are told that his platelets are at 60,000. We are all devastated. None of us want to get on this roller coaster again. Doctors think that it is just a reaction to the antibiotics, but we think differently. We go see our pediatrician, whom we haven't seen in several years. We have moved to a different town, and he had moved to a different city. Our trip there is now around 4 hours. He says it could be from the antibiotics, but it could also be his ITP again. He tells us to monitor his blood and we'd stay in touch. His platelets continued to fluctuate between 40,000 and 60,000. We were sent to see a haematologist again, and he said that we would not do any treatment, unless they dropped more. However, he did start him on folic acid because he said this sometimes jumpstarts the body into producing normal platelets. A couple weeks later, 29,000. They want to repeat the bone marrow, which is not good news. It's a very traumatic event for an 11-year old. He's a tough kid - plays goalie in hockey and back-catcher in ball - but this was hard on him. Again, thank God, the bone marrow was fine. He was started on Prednisone in April and his count has been going up. We don't really like the effects of the prednisone, but because he is very active in sports, the Dr. wants him on it. One benefit - he is a very picky eater, and since being on the medication, he eats anything and everything!! We are just starting to taper off his medication. Hopefully this will be the end of his ITP. But you never really know.

An Anxious Mom (dskurtenbach@mts.net)

Louis

My son Louis(4.5 years old) was diagnosed ITP a few weeks ago-early march 2001. He revealed the tell-tale bruising and had purple collar rashes and pin-prick spots on chest and back.  His platelet count was around 6,000 (I believe normal ranges from 150,000 to 400,000). I cannot describe how my stomach sank when I heard him say "six thousand".

Note: three weeks prior to the bruising Louis had suffered a mild virus - the doctor feels this was the trigger. Louis also suffers from mild eczema and has since babyhood.

This was of course very distressing but the doctor was opposed to any of the immediate treatments and we all hoped for the best. One week later much of the bruising had faded and his platelet count had risen to 126,000.  We are all very relieved and hope there will be no recurrence - the hospital feels that a recurrence is unlikely.

During the 'scary' week he showed mild sign of stress, and unusually took afternoon naps (siestas). In himself he seemed very happy but definitely picked up on the stress my wife, daughter (7) and I were experiencing.

Small actions we took included:

* A new, small red toy was used as a buddy that shared his meals and we visualized "Platelet" getting stronger. This was fun.

*We altered his diet to reduce the amount of refined sugar, meat and chocolate and removed other components i.e. garlic and onion and diuretic juices e.g elderflower.

*We introduced many more vegetables.

*We banned the scooter and bicycle for both children for the week.

*Our next actions had his count remained low would have been to visit an alternative healer - we have used a Tibetan herbalist from the Eden Centre in London who has very effective treatments ( I am scientifically trained and generally quite cynical but have seen it work).

*He continued with his regular pre-school and we advised the school staff of his condition. I think the continuation of as normal a life-style as possible important - any change in pattern for a small child, especially noticed in our Louis, causes stress and this is probably bad.

We believe kids are capable of understanding a lot more than they are generally given credit for and we tried to explain the situation in as simple, non-scary terms as possible. The whole family pulled tightly together and I think a real positive change has occured as a result of this shock. Today matters. Big time.

I feel for all the ITP sufferers and friends and families of sufferers. I wish us all the strength to accept and good luck.

Rudy (rudy@soulman.co.uk)

Conor - 5 1/2

My name is Conor Bernoski-Price. I am 5 1/2. I had ITP when I was 3 and 4 years old but then it went away and we thought I was all better. I don't like it but I just had to go to the hospital and have finger pricks and one night I just had to stay there almost the whole night. I hate not climbing or playing t

-ball. I had blood blisters and nosebleeds and petechiae on my legs and neck. I just had to take pills and swallow them with water. I miss playing baseball, but I do get to play basketball and soccer. I couldn't climb high stuff or ride my bike. I had to take 2 pills at night and 2 in the morning.

One day at school the teacher called my momma because I had blood blisters and bruises and we went to the hospital and stayed there almost the whole night and we didn't get to go to her volley ball game. And I didn't even like those finger pricks. But after the finger pricks I got a Popsicle.

Now my medicine is working. My score is 64 (64,000) so I can play tball and hockey and climb now . I wish my score was 160. We missed Dr. Bash when we didn't see him, but now we see him.

Now I like playing tball. I got to play first base and bat. Now I can play with a hard ball. My mom pitches to me so I can bat when we practice. Once I got an autograph from Rusty Greer on a Ranger ball. I didn't even like that it came back. Now I have to get finger pricks again. Once I got a finger prick and I didn't even cry.

From Conor's Mom: I read Conor (the censored version) of many of your stories and he was very comforted by hearing experiences similar to his own. He had chronic ITP until one year ago when his counts returned to normal and the doctors had told us he had outgrown it. Two weeks ago we were very disappointed when within 24 hours the petechiae and blood blisters appeared with a "score" of 6. He is doing the Prednisone again, and so far it is working, although the side effects are dreadful! We both appreciate your stories and wish you well.

Conor's Mom

CHASE - 27 MO.

MY NAME IS CHASE JOHNSON, I AM 27 MONTHS OLD. I WAS FIRST DIAGNOSED WITH ITP NOVEMBER 1997, BY JANUARY MY COUNT WENT FROM 3000 TO 220,000. WE WERE SO EXCITED! IN

MARCH, I WAS DIAGNOSED WITH JUVENILE DIABETES, BUT THANK GOD, WE HAVE MANAGED IT WELL. LAST WEEK, MY MOMMY NOTICED SOME RED BLEMISHES ON MY SKIN, AND TOOK ME TO THE DOCTOR TO FIND THAT MY PLATELET COUNT WAS DOWN TO 19,000. NOW THAT I'M TWO, I LIKE TO RUN AND FALL A LOT BUT I WASN'T ABLE TO ALL WEEKEND. YESTERDAY, WE WENT BACK FOR ANOTHER COUNT AND IT WAS DOWN TO 10,000. WE ARE PRAYING THAT MY PLATELETS WILL COME BACK ON THEIR OWN. I PRAY WITH MY FAMILY FOR ALL ITP PATIENTS....IT'S NO FUN TO HAVE TO BE SO CAREFUL!!!

Chase's Mom and Dad

Help from Legos

I was diagnosed with ITP when I was 5 years old. When my platelet count became dangerously low, my doctors were worried that I would have a brain hemorrhage. Naturally, my parents became very distressed. My mother who had recently become interested in alternative therapies, taught me to meditate.

As I was a very active child, the meditation not only became an escape from the boredom I was experiencing, but also a great help, I believe, in my consequent recovery. I vividly remember the little Lego men I visualized working away in my bloodstream. This experience changed my whole outlook on life and taught me the power of positive thinking.

Ella, Sydney

Ashley

My name is Ashley. I live in Alaska with my Mom and Dad and little brother Conor. Yesterday (Friday, January 22) my Mom took me to the doctor because I had a lot of little spots all over my legs and some all over my body. I also had some really dark purple bruises that I didn't even remember getting.

When I got to the doctor, he was pretty sure that I had ITP right away. He took blood out of my arm and my count was 7000. He sent us right to the hospital. I was really scared so the doctor gave me some chocolate ice cream. Then the doctor and nurses put a 'heplock' in may hand so that they wouldn't have to keep poking me. It hurt and I didn't want to do it again. I was good and didn't move, but it got messed up and I had to do it again.

I was really tired and fell asleep. They gave me benedril, solumedrol and WinRho. I stayed overnight because we live 90 miles from the hospital and there was a big wind storm at the hospital and a snow storm (1 foot) at my house. I came home today with the heplock still in my hand. Tomorrow morning I go back to find out if my 'count' is better. I really hope so 'cause I can get the heplock out if I don't need more Medicine.

I cry a lot because I'm afraid that I won't ever get to be like other kids and play like everyone else. I'm afraid that other people will laugh at me because I have the heplock in my hand. Sometimes I think that I did something to make myself get ITP. But my Mom tells me it isn't anyone's fault.

I'm really scared because I don't like all of the needle pokes and my Mom and Dad are very worried but try not to show it. Tomorrow we will find out what to do next.

Ashley's Parents

Jackson

On February 14, 1999 Jackson York was diagnosed with having ITP at Children’s Hospital in Boston, MA. Jackson was brought to Southern New Hampshire Regional Hospital on February 13, 1999 where she was admitted overnight and then sent to Children’s the next morning in fear she had leukemia.

Jackson was brought to the hospital mainly because she had little red/purple spots over her body (petechiae) and some blood was noticed in her last bowel movement. She hadn’t been feeling well for a couple days prior with cold symptoms and noticeably clumsy and bruising was more obvious than usual. Her gums started to bleed in the ER. Her blood count in the Emergency Room revealed the platelet count was only 3,000 (normal is 150,000-450,000), this was quit serious. Platelets are in the blood and they cause the blood to clot so you don’t continually bleed.

An order of IVIg (immunoglobulin) was ordered and she was given this intravenously through the night to increase the platelet count. The next morning we were told the labs came back with uncertainties about the possibility of leukemia. Children’s Hospital came to NH and transported us via ambulance. It was a remarkable sight to see 4 staff from the Children’s Hospital Ambulance walking down the hospital corridor to retrieve her. It was with great relief that she was going to be in the best care now.

We were greeted by several people at Children’s and brought to a small quiet room immediately to discuss the testing that we were about to endure. Dr. Caroline Bennett performed the retrieval of bone marrow and Jackson was a perfect patient. After a few emotional hours we were told she did not have leukemia and the diagnosis would be ITP.

Jackson was given another several hours of IVIg through the night and released on February 15, 1999. We had continuous visits to the hospital blood laboratory where they retrieved blood from her foot to measure the platelet count. The first withdrawal we met Kris Mansor (lab technician) and our family bonded with her immediately and she was the only "drawer" from that point on. Kris went above and beyond her duty in making Jackson’s visits exciting.

Of course there was a fall when her platelet count was 45,000. She fell backwards in the playroom and her head landed on her little red rocking chair and caused a cut with a lot of blood. Children’s Hospital was called and they instructed us to meet Hematology in the Emergency Room. After another day of testing, you were released and sent back home again.

On June 24, 1999 she had her last blood draw. Dr. Valerie Atkins spoke to Dr. Neufeld in Children’s Hematology Department and he cleared her of ITP. Hurray! Hurray!

Jackson's Mom

Tommy

I wanted to tell Tman's complete ITP story and history so y'all could compare any similarities with me. Also, next month (May, 1999) will be 6 mos. from diagnosis and 8 mos. since we know now that he had it. Here goes:

Tommy was born 3-10-96. I had several miscarriages before conceiving him and couldn't maintain a pregnancy or get pregnant easily. I went the fertility specialist route. After a year and half of heartache, I became pregnant with Tman. I had to be checked weekly for hormone blood levels etc. to maintain the pregnancy. I developed gestational diabetes in the 7th month and had to go to bed rest. Tommy was induced and we had a terrible 22 hour labor. I hyper-contracted (very rare) for 16 hours before they performed a c-section. I had a postpartum depression from hell with panic attacks (runs in my family).

Tommy developed SEVERE colic at 3 wk. of age (also runs in family). He would scream for 4-6hrs at a time day and night with only 30-45 min. naps and 4-6 hours of sleep at night. Larry and I went through that for 9 mos. !!! Tom teethed early as well and it was very painful for him (he got molars at 4 mos.!!) Our Doc was blown away by this kid! Then at 9-10 mos. chronic ear infections started and we were in the docs office every 2 weeks!! On & off antibiotics constantly! Tubes were put in at 20 mos. Ear infections ceased at 26mos.

Tommy had a mild virus at the end of Aug. and again in early Sept. of 98 (he was 2 1/2) that's when the bruising started but we didn't really notice it until around Halloween. I became concerned but my hubby thought I was overreacting and said, "Let's just wait this out. He's a toddler with pale skin. He's going to have bruises."

Tommy went from day care to home care with a friend in Oct. By Nov. she mentioned his bruises to me and we started really watching his activity. She reported that he could barely bump something and have a TERRIBLE bruise. By then my hubby was worried too. We made an appointment to see the doc the Monday after Thanksgiving.

This is where it gets really ugly!! We went to my grandma's for Thanksgiving. Tommy had developed a small blood blister on the inside of his lower lip. Sat. night it popped. I was at my parents house (on same property) when it happened. My grandma came running up there shouting that he was bleeding and they couldn't stop it. I found Tommy with a dot on his lip (size of the dot in amazon.com on the site) that was streaming blood. We headed for the ER. When we arrived, it was worse. Tommy and I were both covered in blood! We had soaked 2 out of 3 towels we brought. They put us in a holding area and made us wait for 3 hours!!!! By this time, (and I kept asking for medical attention!) Tom's clothes were soaked through and he was getting weak.

I was soaked and so were all the towels and everything around us!!! The stench of blood was making me sick. Tommy was having trouble breathing because he was about to choke on his own blood. This made us all panic. I went to the front desk and asked them how much blood a baby can lose before they go unconscious? I told them I was taking him to an ER where they would DO something!!!

They got the doc back to us and he removed Tom's clothing. We were having to pull chunks of semi-clotted blood from his mouth so he could breath!! When he saw the bruises, we were rushed to a room and a medical team swarmed on us. They had us leave the room so they could apply a clotting agent to the lip and sedate him (which backfired). They told us they knew he hadn't been abused (we thought we were going to jail!) and asked for history. They wouldn't tell us what they thought it was but indicated he needed to be admitted or released to his pea's care immediately. I went in the bathroom to alternately pray, throw up and cry.

We saw the doc 24 hours later at home. Tom's count was 15k. After checking in at TX Children's, the next morning, they were 7k. There was bruising and pettier everywhere (over 75%) of his body. The docs said he might have Leukemia too. He received IVIG (and no emla cream was given or even mentioned as an option) for 4 hours. His counts soared in 7 days he was at 398k.Leukemia was ruled out. In 7 more days he was at 198k.Then down to 98K etc. We were back and forth to TX Childrens and our ped.

Since then we've had the ear bleed, a nose bleed and several close calls with the head. His counts in the past 6-8weeks have stayed above 50k and we are grateful even though he had the ear bleed and blood plug in his ear at 80k! The docs aren't sure what to think of his case. The real test will be to see what happens in the next 6 mos. and what happens if he gets a bad bug.

Thanks for letting me share my son's story. It has been difficult to watch my "miracle baby" go through this. I want to enjoy the higher counts but I just never know what is around the corner for him. At least he's been doing great with no sign of a drop for the past 2 weeks! Love to all of you and let me know any comparisons you have. I'm trying to make sense of all this!

Cherie, Tommy's Mom

Reid's Story

My name is Reid. I am 8 years old. Once I had to go to the hospital and have a heplock. It was really scary. Then I got out of the hospital without a heplock. When you have to get finger pokes, it can make you cry. But it doesn't hurt.

I can tell my ITP is acting up because I get sleepy and I get bruises that I don't know where they came from. But you forget about it after a while. I feel really happy when I don't have to have finger pokes for a little while. When I think my ITP is starting to come back, I tell somebody and I try to take it easy. After a finger poke, you can go shopping. Once my mom took me to Toys R Us after the finger poke.

That's my story. The End

Lori815@aol.com

Johnathan

My son Johnathan was 4 years old. It was in Sept. of 1998. He broke out in little red and purple spots all over his chest and back. I thought that this was very weird so I took him to the doctor that morning. The doctor said it was probably ITP and not to worry too much. He said that he will do a blood test and then probably have to put him on medication and have a few blood tests but that's it. Well I took him for the blood test and the doctor called me an hour later and said that I need to bring my son to the Childrens hospital in Hartford now because his count was only 1000. I was terrified. He said to drive slow because any bump and he could bleed out. After my husband and I got him there they put in the IV and he cried so much that his whole face was now covered with those little spots. The specialist came in and explained everything to me and what steps we would take. I felt a little better.

At about ten o'clock that night they started IVIG and by eleven o'clock he was having trouble breathing. His fingers were turning blue and it was awful. They immediately stopped the IV and gave him oxygen and he got better from the allergic reaction. So the next day the doctor had to do a bone marrow test to rule out leukemia. A few hours later they told us that it wasn't leukemia and that he would have to get IV steroids for the next three days and then we would see how his platelet count was and he should go home. Four days later his platelet count was up to 90,000 so they sent us home with blood test every week. His count went up and down for a few weeks but finally it straightened out and now he is doing great. He has a very good platelet count of well over 250,000. We have to get it checked about every six months just to be sure, but thank god he is doing great

Mac24cam@aol.com (Caroline)

Daniel's Story

I am 15 months old. I was sick on New Year's Day - they were not sure what it was - but the doctor put me on Augmentin. I was running a fever of 103 and coughing terribly. Five days after the medication was gone - Mom noticed bruises. At first she just thought I must have fallen on the rocks outside - but a few days later she noticed more and more bruising - on my scalp even!

Then the red spots appeared. Mom took me to see Dr. "S" and I was immediately diagnosed with ITP. The blood tests confirmed this. Dr. "S" recommended a helmet and no climbing. He wanted to "watch" me over the weekend. Mom had read lots of stories here and was paranoid that I would start bleeding. She called back to talk with Dr. "S" about the next appointment and when she couldn't reach Dr. "S" got angry! Dr. "I" got on the phone to answer questions and became concerned that I was not being treated.

My platelet count was 11,000 and Dr. "I" said 20,000 was his limit for treatment. Since I was 15 months and probably wouldn't sit still and watch TV all weekend - he recommended PediaPred. Mom was relieved. On Monday my counts were 39,000 and on Friday they were up to 165,000. I am going to stay on the steroids for a few more weeks as they wean me off them. I hope this fixes me - I sure have Mom and Dad worried!

Daniel was doing really well (no bruises at all!) after two weeks of the Pediapred, so we did his well baby exam (he got his HIB shot) and began to reduce his dosage to 2 times a day. After 4 days, the bruises returned! His platelets were at 16,000. We upped his dosage again and were referred to the Phoenix Children's Hospital for closer observation. The doctor there said that the HIB could have triggered his immune system to over react again and recommended we reduce his dosage again. His platelets had returned to normal (176,000). We are four days into the reduced dosage and so far no bruises!

We continue to pray and hope for the best - but at this point it is up to Daniel!

Epilogue

Daniel is doing great! We weaned him off the steroids in mid-March and he continued to bruise for several weeks. We watched him closely during this time - but by mid-April - he appeared to be completely fine! Our bout with ITP lasted approx. 3 months. I still worry when he gets ill - but so far we just keep him off Motrin and any cough/cold medicines that contain expectorants (these supposedly affect the immune system). I hold my breath for the day he will require antibiotics again and pray they won't trigger a relapse! 

Epilogue - 2

Daniel is now 4 1/2.  He has had the usual cold and flu illnesses and has taken antibiotics (Not Augmentin, though) for strep throat with no side effects or reoccurrence of ITP.  He does gymnastics and is leading a very normal childhood.

Hang in there to all you mothers and fathers who have small ones with this disease! It is not fun - but most cases do correct themselves!

dsiems@cox.net

11 Years Old and Thought My World Was Ending

It's 3PM, my hands are sweating, my heart is pounding and my brain can't think. I sit and wait in anticipation in the doctor's office, all I can think is where did the nurse go? I hear a knock on the door; it's got to be the doctor. Sure enough it is, I prayed for good news, but it was everything besides that. It turns out that my blood tests came back that my platelets were at 15,000 when normal is between 150,000 and 300,000. So I was so sent home, I packed my stuff and off to Schidner's Children's Hospital I went with tears in my eyes.

At eleven years old I thought my life was over. I was supposed to go to my friend Loren's for her birthday party, instead I was stuck on a operation table with a nurse sticking anesthetic in my hip with a needle pressing on my hip bone just to get bone marrow from me. At this time I still didn't know what was going on. Finally after hours of pain and tests, I thought it was over and I could go home. I was wrong; this was just the start of a life long condition called ITP.

It's now six years later and I now look at the world in a different perspective all because my life was changed from one innocent blood test. I have to go through my life knowing that I live with an incurable disease that could turn deadly at any time, but would never be able to tell.

I always bruised a lot during the summer and my parent's never thought anything of it, until it was time for my yearly school physical. My mom was nurse for the doctors office, so my dad brought me up to the office, we went through my normal exam, and lastly took my blood and allowed me to go home. Less than an hour later after I returned home the phone rang. I answered the phone to find out it was my mom, she told me that something was wrong with my blood test and that dad had to bring me back up there. So I got back into the car and rode up to the office. I was brought into a room where they took blood from my arm and my finger. My platelet count was down to 25,000 and that's when everyone but me knew I was in trouble. My doctors sent me home and told me to go to HIP in the morning.

I arrived at HIP where my old doctor looked me over and sent me to the lab for a blood test. I went had the blood test done and returned to the waiting room. I sat there hands folded, legs crossed, and totally confused as I waited for the results to come back. The results were finally back and the doctor brought my mom and I into her office, by the look on her face I knew the news wasn't good. I didn't pay much attention until I heard the word hospital. They still couldn't diagnose me until more tests were taken.

Next thing I know I was crying my eyes out to my house, while I packed my stuff, and all the way to the hospital. I felt so angry inside, I kept questioning myself 'Why me'. That question is still not answered. Upon arrival at Schidner's Children's' Hospital, I was brought up to the fifth floor and put in a room with a little girl that had sickle cell anemia. I settled down and put everything in my room, after awhile a nurse came in and took blood again from me and sent it to the lab. Next thing I know nurse came in and took me down stairs to an operation table where I was told they were going to take bone marrow from me to test it. At that time I didn't know why and didn't think it was going to hurt. Oh my god was I wrong. The nurse only numbed the right side of my hip and then took this huge, long, pointy needle and stuck it in my hip all the way down to the bone to scrape bone marrow off of it. It hurt so bad that I can't even begin to explain the pain.

Once it was over I was wheelchaired back to my room where I got to rest. If the results of the test found that I had no platelets in my bone marrow, I would have been diagnosed with Leukemia. It is such a heart wrenching feeling inside knowing that I had to live with the result and taking the chances of having my dreams crushed all because of one innocent blood test.

Finally after all the tests were done and the results came back I was diagnosed with chronic ITP. This blood disease causes my platelets to fluctuate up and down. Mine were down to 15,000, a very dangerous level.

Even though it is rare for people to die from this disease it is still possible. I was eleven years old, teary eyed, and scared for my life as I looked up at one of the doctors and asked if I was going to die. He assured me that my life was in good hands and I trusted him.

In most cases in children, they have it once and it goes away. Well after I was released from the hospital, I figured I could go home and go back to my normal life. Guess again. I was stuck on yucky tasting medicine that I refused to take unless it was in a gelcap. This medicine not only restricted me from dancing and gym, but it made me eat all the time. I did nothing but gain a whole bunch of weight after I had just spent my summer losing it all. I had hit a stage of depression where all I wanted to do was starve myself, but I couldn't the medication wouldn't allow me too.

School had started and I was still on medication. My platelets had flew sky high and I was so excited because I felt normal again. I could dance, play, and even earned my hope back. That hope was all lost again after three months out of the hospital, I was pulled from school and put back in it. The results of a weekly blood count had showed that my platelets had dropped and the prednisone wasn't working.

I arrived at the hospital in the late afternoon. They showed me my room once again and this time instead of being given pills they gave me and IV of IGG. It wasn't, as bad except I had to walk around with a pole. They gave me 10 bottles of IGG and they cost $1,000 a bottle. That didn't exactly thrill my parents, but my health was what was important. I only stayed in the hospital over night because my count had gone high enough so they could release me to see Snow White on Ice.

I went home that night after the show and just relaxed. If I learned one thing from this condition, it's certainly not to give up hope. Once you lose hope you give up on everything. If was I to give up on this condition and let it take control of me, I may not be here right now. Now that my condition has been stabilized for about five years, I'm starting to show symptoms for Lupus and there is a possible chance that I carry the prothrombin gene mutation. I think I'll just leave these adventures for another time in my life.

Having this condition proves who your real friends are. I lost many friends when I gained weight and couldn't do any of the fun stuff that they wanted to do. I stuck to the hope that the Lord up above planted in me. If he never did I wouldn't be as strong as I am. At the hospital I looked around and thanked God that my condition wasn't as severe as the others there. Many people go through life not knowing what it's like having medical problems. I know and I use what I've learned to help others. Your life is the most precious thing and when things interfere with it many give up but instead I face it to battle in through to the end and that's what I plan to do with my ITP no matter how long it takes.

Tweety1333@aol.com

A Mom's Story

My little girl was 7, as pretty as could be with long blond hair and blue eyes. She looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I have a black and blue on my hand." I didn't think much of it then because a thumb print was all I could see.  But as the days went on my child looked pale and not right to me. I took her to the Doctor and he seemed to laugh at me and said, "You worry too much.  She's as healthy as can be!"

He took a blood test to just please me, but in two hours he called and said for me to take Danielle to the hospital immediately. Her platelets were only 7,000 and he didn't know why? I took her to the hospital and tried to hide the tears in my eyes and how scared I was had to be held inside! She was just a little girl she could not understand all the needles and the medicine when she didn't feel sick.

They gave her a spinal to rule out all the rest, then came the prednisone. That really didn't help at all, because soon as they took her off of it her platelets would fall. I then met other doctors who said, "Lets just remove her spleen, she doesn't really need it then she'll have more platelets than she needs."  I believe God was with me because not knowing why I said, "No she'll keep her spleen, I think she needs it." 

I'm was sure there was a Doctor out there who will felt  like me so I searched everywhere.  Then I found a Doctor who took her off the predisone.  He said  it was worse than the ITP itself.  He treated her with gamma globulin for three days.  Her platelets went to 550,000.  Yes they did drop over the months ahead but stayed in a safe range.   Now my little daughter was going back to normal... no more moon face and mood swings.  God has given her back to me.

Danielle went for weekly blood counts then monthly. After about a year and a half the Doctor said she was in remission.   How happy I was! Then we did yearly counts:120.000 - 99,000 which could be normal for her. 

Now at the age of 20 my daughter had a wisdom tooth pulled. It was a hard on. They had to cut the bone.  Two days later at least 4 bruises were on my daughters body.  I didn't want to face it but in my heart I knew we had to have her blood checked. Her platelets were 2,000.  Here we go again!  Back to New York we go! 

At first it was a pain seemed she was being treated every week. Then it started to go longer.  Now its been 2 years. She's now 22 and her treatment was 6 months ago. Even though she's staying on the low side, she's not a bleeder.  But the Doctor thinks she's going back into remission. (I hope)

 But the Doctors can only do so much. There's not enough research on ITP so we must all pull together, search and compare and maybe with the help of God we will find the reason for ITP and not a band-aid.  God Bless all of you. Danielles Mom (Cnigro99@aol.com)

Heather - 16

When I was 6 my Mom told me she noticed these weird spots on my back one day while giving me a bath. A couple days later I got more so she took me to the Dr. and I guess that was when I was first diagnosed with ITP. Well,... I don't remember everything but I do remember a few big things. 

I remember that they sent me to the children's hospital where I had my first bone marrow biopsy done. That was very scary for since I was only six years old. I remember they tried to sedate me but I wouldn't clam down and the flamingos on the wall were spinning..., there was flamingos painted on the wall I wasn't going crazy =) After they were done I sat up and threw up and it was like that the rest of the day...I would take one bite of food and throw up.  It was terrible. 

I also remember there was a point that my Doctor told my mom not to even hug me for a while because I would bruise.  It was hard at school cause I would get paranoid if someone would bump into me. For almost a year I went and got blood work done everyday after school. My life as a 6 yr. old was pretty hard now that I look back at it. OK on to now..... 

One morning, a few months ago, I woke up with tonsillitis... I had the absolute ugliest stuff on my tonsils... huge blood blisters, patches of white stuff, and to top that all of they were so swollen I could barely swallow, let alone talk. It hurt so bad.  I described the pain like a knife going down my throat.  I went to the Doctor's office twice in a 3 days and they gave me medicine for that and a sinus infection plus said I probably had mono. 

That was a Friday and a Saturday that I went to the Dr's. Monday I woke up in so much pain.  I was crying so my mom took me to the ER at 5 am. They gave me 2 shots in my rear end OUCH! of a steroid and penicillan. That helped a lot but on Wed. I had to go to my reg. Dr and get blood work done cause during this time I had "broken blood vessels" so I thought. I now know that it was petechiae or whatever they are called, all over my body. My mom was concerned about it being ITP and so was my Dr. cause he remembered my ITP from when I was little. So they ran blood test and found out that I had mono and my platelet count was 2,000. That is when they put me on prednisone and recommended we go to a hematologist. 

I went to the hematologist and my counts were at 4,000 so she increased my pred. and said 'let's see if this helps', if not she would admit me into the hospital and give me the IVIg. Well.. they worked for less then a week and my platelets dropped back to 3,000 so she told me that she would admit me the next day.

I went to the hospital on Saturday morning and they gave me IVIG for the weekend and then I got to go home at 10:00 Sunday night. I woke up on Monday with a runny nose, but didn't think anything of it because I knew my immune system was down and figured I just caught one of my little brothers colds. I had friends over and we all hung out until I had to go and get more blood work done that afternoon. On the way to the Dr.'s I started feeling a little sick, but still thought it was nothing.  We got to the doc's office and I sat in the waiting room forever and as I sat there I started getting worse and worse. Finally I got my blood taken and then I couldn't take it anymore I told my mom to get in the car and go home ASAP that I needed to lay down. 

On the way home I developed the weirdest, worst headache I had ever had. I was like this continuous pain but I really can't even explain how it felt. I went home and got right into bed while my mom, freaking out, called the Dr. to see what we were supposed to do.  

While I was in the hospital getting IVIg they had vaccinated me in case I have to get my spleen out.  They told me to come back if I had any reactions at all. Well.. I must have fallen asleep.  I don't remember.  All I remember was opening my eyes and saying OH MY GOD I AM GOING TO GET SICK, but I didn't feel like I was.  It was the weirdest thing. I sat up took one step away from my bed and threw up all over my room and all the way to the bathroom.

At this point the Doctor told my mom to get me to the ER NOW!! So we sped all the way there and they were waiting for me when I got there. They took my blood, hooked me up to IV , and did a cat scan on me. That was scary. I laid in the hallway of the ER for about 4 hours and then they decided to have a neurologist come in a do a spinal tap on me. That was scary cause I heard that they HURT real bad. Well I got through that one ok and then had to wait 2 HOURS, laying flat on my back! Some other Doctor came in and told me that there were 995 white cells, or some kind of cells, in my spinal fluid and I should only have 0-5.... BIG difference!! Then my protein in my fluid was up. So they vaccinated my family in case it was Meningitis. That is scary hearing that you might have that.  It can be very dangerous. So they masked me up and admitted me.  I was put in isolation and everyone that came in had to wear masks and all this protective stuff. It sucked.

They pumped me full of antibiotics through IV and the next day everything was going down and that was good cause that meant the test for meningitis was negative and I was out of isolation. Well,  to make a LONG story, sorry it is so long you didn't want to know every detail.. While I was in there for 6 days I had another spinal tap, and a bone marrow biopsy.. boy did my back hurt!! Finally Saturday they let me go home and my platelets were at 202,000. During the next week they dropped down to 107. Now a few months later I am off all medication and was at 150K when I came off. Now about a month after that I am back down to 102K.  I have a cold right now and I feel terrible.

I hope I didn't bore you with my life story, if you have any questions or tips please IM or e-mail me, I love to hear from people. Also you could get in touch with my mom, she has never been to this site, but I know that it might be nice to have other parents with children that have ITP to talk to.. You can reach her at ... TeLatte@aol.com

Heather FEATHEROO@aol.com

Joseph - 4 1/2

My name is Joseph and I am four and a half years old.  I was diagnosed with ITP 1 year ago.  I have had IVIG, WinRro, and prednisone.  I get weekly blood counts.  I usually go into the hospital every three weeks for IVIG. My first experience was so scary.  My mom brought me to the doctor because I had big bruises all over my body and I didn't know how they got there.  They took a blood test and the doctor called Mom at work and said to bring me to the hospital right away. 

They poked me all day long. They told my mom they were checking for leukemia. They then told her I had ITP.  She was so scared and I didn't know why. The doctors told her I would need IVIG for 4 days.  I was at 17K was discharged with 650K. Each week I would go down.

When I reached 10K I would have to get another IVIG. I am very active and I don't understand what will happen if I jump and play.  Will I ever get better? My doctors and nurses are so understanding and patient.  When I'm giving them a hard time and mom is upset crying, they are so patient. They give me surprises for my bravery.  

I want all this to go away now.  Mom and I pray every night for all the people who have ITP get better.  My mom can't understand why the doctors can't find the particular virus that is causing my ITP.  We will continue to pray for answers and for all of us.

lewisc@cityofaventura.com

Mirrisa - 14

My name is Mirrisa. I am 14 and I have Chronic ITP.

I was diagnosed in 1999. I had gone down to the Black Hills with my grandpa and grandma. They thought I was

anemic. My grandma took me to a doctor in town. He examined me and took my blood. Then he diagnosed me with ITP. I was scared. He sent us to Rapid City to another doctor. He gave me platelets for a couple weeks until my folks could get there. Then 4th of July we came back home and the doctor in Rapid City us to one in Sioux Falls.

They did every medicine. Nothing worked. Then she decided I had to have my spleen out. Two weeks after we met the surgeon I had surgery. The surgeon came in and told me everything. He said that he did a laproscopic with my platelets only at a 10 thousand. He ran into major problems. I started to bleed on him. They ran 28 units of platelets through me during surgery.

I stayed in the hospital for a couple of weeks. My platelets didn't want to stay up. Then we went to another doctor in Sioux Falls. The new doctor sent me to Rochester Minn. We did blood tests and everything. I had spleen left in me from the 1st surgery. I had my 2nd surgery on Nov 17. He did a long cut on me, the old fashioned cut.

They gave me WinRho and that didn't work so the 5th day of staying there in Rochester I had to have blood

given to me cause WinRho brought my red blood count down. Nothing worked so they sent me back to SD after they got my platelets up to 25 thousand to be safe to ride.

Then we went to another doctor in Rochester. He started me on Chemo therapy. That didn’t work. Since I don't have more spleen in me, they decided just to give me a platelet transfusion. That worked. Now my platelets are up to 159 thousand and climbing.

I am only on one drug and it's called barley green. It works so try it. If anyone has low platelets try barley green. It's good for you but it also stinks.

Mirrisa (mirrisa_2000_2000@yahoo.com)

Trent - 3

My son Trent was diagnosed with ITP on his second birthday. He was going through the terrible twos and having head-banging tantrums. He became over excited on his birthday and went into a tantrum. I picked him up and placed him in his room. Later I was horrified to see purple finger prints on his arms and then I noticed little red dots all over his scalp and face.

I took him to our local doctor who checked him and said he had a lot of bruises. I felt so guilty and said I didn't hit my child. He explained he thought Trent might be a hemophiliac and sent us to the hospital. I couldn't reach of my husband so I went to the ER rooms at the hospital with my 3 month old in tow, where I waited for 6 hours to be seen.

They tried to do blood tests but couldn't find a vein for several attempts. His platelet count was 18 and we were told to return the next day. More trauma for my son, but he had a count of 32. The next day gave a count of 79.

We started to relax a little, being told it would almost certainly be a normal count one week later. It wasn't, it was 18. So we decided to 'go private'. First we saw a wonderful Hematologist who didn't treat children but referred us on. The next hematolgoist said if ever Trent had sores in his mouth to page her urgently. One day he did have these sores and a nose bleed when he cried, so I paged her - 11 times! - She didn't respond (later I learnt she had taken a post overseas). I didn't pay her bill and rang up the original hemo who referred us again.

By now I was desperate and couldn't live with the news that nothing would be done unless my sons count went as low as 10 (and then IV Immuglobin or steroids-which would only be temporary fixes and not without side effects). At this point I contacted a naturopath who put Trent on Vitamin C and Shark Liver Oil. Within one month of this (Trent had had ITP then for 3 months and had become so traumatized from the blood tests, he wouldn't go out of the house or look at an adult) the platelet count stabilized in the 60s.

When Trent had the condition for 6 months I contacted a second natropath, who has turned out to be wonderful. He treated Trent with a variety of Miasms - and gradually the symptoms have gotten less and less. (At one point he concentrated on getting rid of all Trents trauma - red marks actually appeared everywhere he'd had blood tests....) For the last 3 months Trent has been symptom free. We are due for our next blood test next month - I feel sure his count has gone up and I'm almost daring to hope that the ITP has gone.

I'd love to hear from other parents of children with ITP both here in Australia or overseas, and I hope that our story gives you the hope to keep looking for a cure.

Jenni and Trent (now just 3) jenni_downunder@yahoo.co.uk and jenniday@one.net.au

Louis - 5

My son was diagnosed with ITP in August of 2001.  He’s 5 years old.  His name is Louis.

He has always had nosebleeds, but I never thought it was anything serious, because I had nosebleeds as a child, but I did eventually grow out of it.  Anyway, I noticed a bruise on his arm one day I didn’t think much of it because he’s a rough little boy, On another occasion, after a routine check up, I noticed where he had blood drawn from he had a very bad bruise. 

One morning on August before he went to school he had a nosebleed, I stopped it and he was fine, he went to school, his first day of Kindergarten.  He had a nosebleed in school, the school called me at work because the nosebleed wouldn’t stop, so of course I went to pick him up.  By the time I got him in the car he was throwing up blood.  It looked like it was old blood.  I’m not sure.

I took him to his pediatrician. His Doctor didn’t believe me when I told him how much blood he had lost.  I had to show him his clothes.  He bleed so much that I had to take his clothes off.  His pediatrician told me to take him to Children’s hospital, because his platelets were at 12,000.  That’s when I learned about ITP.     

Louis ended up staying in the hospital for three days.   No treatment was given.  They just wanted to watch him.  His platelets ended up going back up on their own.

  Louis did well, for a little bit.  He had nosebleeds about 3 times a week.  Some days were worse than others.  He goes to see the doctor once a week to get a CBC to see where his platelets are.  It gets very frustrating sometimes because his platelets go up and down all the time. They haven’t gotten over 100,000,

October, 2001 Louis had another very bad nosebleed.  It started at home.  After about 20mins I called the hematologist and he told me to take Louis into Children’s Hospital.  By the time we were at the hospital his nose had bleed for about 45mins. We went straight to the back and got a room.  His nose started to bleed worse.  The blood was coming form his nose and his mouth.  It was so much blood  He cried and hollered because he could barely breathe.  He had to get the blood suctioned from his mouth so he wouldn’t swallow it. The ear nose and throat doctor thought that he was going to have to stuff his nose because it wouldn’t stop bleeding.  After about 3 1/2 hours of very bad bleeding it slowed down.   Louis was given IVIG. It helped a lot. 

Since then Louis hasn’t had another nosebleed, he’s been doing well other than the fact that his platelets go up and down like a roller coaster.

If you have a story related to mine, please, please share it with me, my email address is setheridge@wi.rr.com 

Courtney's Challenge

I was very excited yesterday when finding this site. My daughter was diagnosed with ITP in May of 2000. It has been 20 long months.   I read some of these stories and it sounds like ours, so here it goes.

May 2, 2000 I had noticed a lot of bruising on Courtney. She often had bloody noses. I didn't think much of the bloody noses since she had always had them . It ran in my husbands family. 5 minutes before we went to the doctors her nose started to bleed. The doctor thought she has ITP.  I needed to put on some emla cream and get a blood draw. We waited one hour and went for the blood draw, her nose still bleeding. So I took her back to the office to show them she was still bleeding.  By then she started vomiting blood.

The doctor told me to take her to Strong Childrens Hospital. When we got there her nose had finally stopped bleeding. It bled for 4 hours. Her counts were 5k.

Because her blood is Rh negative she could not have WinRho. She needed IVIg. She did very well with it . Counts soared in the 400k range.  Two weeks later they were back down to 9k.. We got a call at 10:30 at night,  We were terrified. We decided to do another IVIg and had good numbers once again. They began to fall low again but in a range where we just needed to watch. 

In October of 2000 they were down again We did  more IVIgs. Then we started her on prednisone in late Oct.. At first we were seeing some good numbers but that didn't last long. It was just another one of those band-aides not a fix. We began to wean her. Then on January 21, 2001 trouble began. A slip in the driveway (so we thought) landed us in the hospital once again. She was bleeding in her stools, going to the bathroom every half hour...ALL Blood.  They checked her stools at the hospital we got back a positive for Chron's Disease..But there were sometimes false positives.  She had the bone marrow. Good news Chronic ITP. 

She had all types of Nuclear scans.  Everything was negative. She also had a colonoscopy. That turned out to be negative for Chron's.

For two weeks we struggled in the hospital trying to find the cause of bleeding, me 5 months pregnant sleeping there every
night, my husband going back and forth from work and home trying to take care of my 9 yr as well.

We spent every weekend in the hospital from January - March . We decided to do Vincristine. She needed to take Danazol by mouth ane Immuran. She would also get Solumedrol and an IVIg along with it. 

By mid March her counts came up and she was doing well.
June 2001 more blood in the stools but her counts were ok for her - 56K.Her average high for the past year had been 10K so 56K was awesome.  We gave her another IVIg got her counts up and once again had a colonoscopy. This time it had shown she had ulcerative colitis. The prednisone had been masking it when we did the previous one.  Finally we knew the cause, but what a bad combination. In Sept we tried something different for the pediatrics. We did Rutuxinab. No luck. Then tried Remicade for the colitis. That helped her stools so at least we were not worried about her bleeding.

That is about where we stand right now. No blood.  Hher counts were 7K right before Christmas and we did Solumedrol that seemed to help for now.

We try to see the best in things.  I just am so lucky that it wasn't
anything worse. My Daughter , you would never know she was sick. She is always happy always smiling. My neighbor said that she is his hero. He has cancer. He says when he has a bad day he thinks of her. Always smiling.

I hope this story can help someone. I know that the others have helped me Thank you!

Lisa (demanchick@juno.com)

Daniel (11)

HI , I have one heck of a story for you all!

My son Daniel (11yrsold) was covered in bruises... I mean big purple and red bruises. I examined him and asked him what had happened and he couldn't explain other than some football and rough play at school. My fiancé and I decided to wait one more day and then we would take him to the doctors just thinking that he had some bad luck this week.

Well, to my surprise my son didn't come home after school on that Monday and a detective came instead! She took me in for questioning and then proceeded to tell me that my fiancé has been arrested for assault causing bodily harm! I was in shock and in terror.  I began to cry uncontrollably thinking that this was in fact true.  Daniel was taken into the care of Children's Aid and put into a foster home and my fiancé was put in jail.  I was a wreck  with the two most important people to me gone and feeling I failed to protect my child when he needed me.

The next day Daniel was taken by the Children's Aid to Toronto Sick Kids Hospital and underwent a S.C.A.N which is a complete physical to determine child abuse. That evening the doctor called the foster home from his own home with the blood test results and told them to take Daniel to the emergency. His platelets were at a very low 10.  He was put on gamma globulin and the platelets began to rise.  3 days later the platelets began to drop again. He is now to go for a bone marrow test to see if he has leukemia and boy am I scared.  Meanwhile my fiancé is still being charged and the Children's Aid is still trying to gain custody of my son because he told the officer that he gets spankings sometimes when he does something really bad!

I would never allow anyone to harm my child nor would I allow myself to physically harm my child. I am going through hell right now and wish that they would just read about this ITP and realize how wrong they are and how much pain they are causing my son and our family. Wish me luck , though I feel it's pretty much an open and shut case. I just hope and pray that my boy doesn't have something serious like leukemia.

Patricia (trishe2002@hotmail.com)

Tracy

It was 1999 and my oldest cousin, Tracy just graduated 8th grade. She suddenly started getting lots of bruises all over her body. She got a nosebleed one night that wouldn’t stop bleeding, so the next morning Tracy’s parents took her to her doctor. The doctor was a little worried because Tracy had so many bruises. So they sent her to get blood work done, it was Friday afternoon, they said they would call them back on Monday to let Tracy know the results.

Well, they got a call the next morning saying that she was in critical condition and to get her to Children's Hospital. They found out that she had Mono. They said that the Mono caused her to develop ITP. So first they put her on prednisone. She stayed on that the whole time while trying other medications such as IVIG, and cytoxen. She also had to have Chemotherapy. It was not as much as cancer patients, but she did still lose a lot of her hair. Since she was on the steroids for so long she blew up like a balloon. No one could even recognize her. It turned out none of the medicine was even working for her. She decided to get a splenectomy. They tried to do the surgery by laser, but there was too much fatty tissue from the steroids so they had to cut open her stomach. After she got her spleen removed they started taking her off the steroids hoping her platelets will stay up. Fortunately, they did.

Tracy went into the hospital in April for two days because her platelets were low again. They ran some tests and released her after two days. On June 29, 2002, Tracy came to my 13th birthday party. She was very sick with a cold so she lay in bed the whole day. However, she came outside to sing Happy Birthday to my twin brother, Alan and me. Then on June 30, 2002, we all went to a wedding shower and Tracy was fine; she said she was doing a lot better. On July 2, 2002, she had a doctor’s appointment. She was complaining of chest pains so her Mom took her to Children's Hospital's Emergency Room. After she was in there for a couple of hours she passed out in the elevator. Later that day she ended up passing out again and they had to resuscitate her. She passed out again and they couldn't wake her back up. On July 2, 2002 Heaven welcomed its newest angel, Tracy Ann Mihalchik.

Tracy's Cousin, Christina BingOOOGram319@aol.com