How did we know?

The biggest question that everyone keeps asking me is how did we know that something was wrong? Unfortunately, I think something had been wrong for about six weeks, but we didn't know it was anything like this! Basically, she was very tired. She would fatigue quite easily. She started out by not wanting to play soccer anymore, something that she always loved to do. She was slow, winded, and afraid to get hurt. Then she started crying to go to the busstop in the mornings. She would not eat breakfast and she would complain of headaches or bellyaches. She made frequent trips to the school nurse. Everyone kept attributing these things to the fact that her Grandma, my mom, had just died. It was the grief. She didn't want to leave her parents anymore because she was afraid. People kept advising me to just let her ride it out.

Then, we went on vacation to Atlantis in the Bahamas. This place is made up of all things that kids love! Waterslides, water playgrounds, pools, rides, dolphins, the ocean...anything that they could want. Our son was running around doing everything and saying it was the best day of his life. Ally was sitting in a pool chair and reading a book. It was on this trip that Jerad and I realized that something was probably wrong. It wasn't grief. We were thinking Mono or anemia. People kept telling us that she looked pale. She is pale anyway, but now it was more. You can even see it if you look at pictures. Her lips were the same color as her face.

Once we got home, it kept getting worse. One night we took her on a bike ride and she made it about two houses away. She collapsed on her handlebars and couldn't go anymore. Last Wednesday, I walked to the busstop to get her, which I don't always do. She dropped her backpack at the corner. She couldn't carry it. She came in the house and went straight to the couch. I opened her backpack and her lunch was still in there...uneaten. I had set up a dr's appt weeks ago (oh yea, they couldn't get me in for 16 days they told me). The appointment was for the very next day but I called and said I couldn't wait anymore. I told them I was taking her to the hospital to get some tests going. All the sudden, they told me to come into their office. It was already 5pm. They sent us straight to Children's hospital for bloodwork and xrays. They told us to wait there until someone called our cell phone with the results. Off we went....Jerad, Ally, and I.