Sunday, Hemophilia and Needles

So Sunday was awesome! Met E's mom who did really turn out to be a sincerely nice woman. Even me in my mean judgemental way could find nothing wrong with her, or even what would potentially be a problem. She loved her son, her granddaughters and pretty much had adopted my own 4 as her own new grandkids before the end of the afternoon. There was a huge feast as my Lily put it, face painting which was hilarious and alot of fun, and pumpkin painting and of course lots of pictures. One family member down and it turned out great. All my kids got along and very little melt downs. I posted a pic of Nathan as a blue pokadotted monster of some sort. I told Eric last night this will be the picture the prosecutor blows up to poster size after Nathan stabs me to death in my sleep for making me get his face painted as an almost 2 year old : )

I just got back from the yearly clinic at Dr T's today. My younger boys (my only boys) have a rare bleeding disorder called Hemophilia. No they don't get cut easier and they don't necassarily bleed more they just don't have the clotting factor in their blood that you or I have so they bleed longer. So its not so much the scrapes and bruises of everyday life that I worry about its the limp my 4 year has every once in awhile or a bump on the little ones head. Its the internal bleeding into their joints that they tend to worry about. Hemophilia can be a crippling disease if nothing else. I am lucky my boys, both had mild/moderate hemophilia, which means I don't have to see the doctor for factor unless there is a major injury, or like I said a limp that wont go away..or for instance when the 4 year slammed the door on the 2 year old's finger he needed factor at the ER so it would stop the bleeding sooner. There are families out there that deal with this on a day to day basis not just on a case by case basis. There are kids that have severe hemophilia that have spontaneous bleeds who have to wear knee pads when they learn how to crawl cause it could affect their joints. I am lucky. I knew I had a 50% chance of having a son that had hemophilia, since I knew I was a carrier because my dad has it, but on the plus side after our 2 girls and really wanting a son, I knew that the severity of the hemophilia would be no more than mild moderate because that is what my Dad has and that it doesn't worsen or lessen on down the hereditary line.

It was a morning process in the beginning just because he won't be able to play contact sports, join the military or anything like that, pluses in some ways but anytime a parent is told their kids will have limitations it is still somewhat of a disappointment... you want to tell them they can do anything they want which he can ito a degree...it was just a learning process to teach him and now Nathan as well what he will be able to do instead. At the end of the morning long visits with the social worker, physical therapist, dentist,nurse practitioner and then finally the doctor visit they had to get blood drawn. Now I had promised Nick no shots, but he was on to my game and didn't want anything to do with needles whether it was to draw blood or give him a shot. Nathan honest to God sat there looked at the needle in his arm and the vials they were filling up with his blood and laughed...seriously I am a little concerned for that boy, then after he was done and had the band aid on he walked out of the room but not before giving the nurse a hug on her leg??? She's probably on his killing spree list as well

Nick on the other hand had to be carried into the room screaming and crying, when he realized it didn't hurt so much he still didn't want the needle in his arm and began screaming at them to take it out then the tear jerker looks at me and pleads " Mommy make them take it out" Ughhh I hate seeing my kids like that and usually I have a "suck it up soldier" type of attitude, but it was bad...but its over and knock on wood we wont have to be in there for any more infusions : )