Hematologists

I was really starting to freak out this morning.
My mother-in-law called and told me she had just gotten her platelet count back. 5k, which is less than my daughter had on the officially scariest weekend of my life. I was glad she was finally getting some medical attention for the bruising that she had been suffering from for two weeks, but hearing that number made me want to pull out the pillows and down comforters and wrap her up like the kid from "A Christmas Story."
I asked if they were sending her to the hospital and she started talking about how she had to take some prednisone first and then get an appointment with the Hematologist. I was ready to climb through that phone and throttle that doctor, prednisone. For pity's sake she's at 5k!
I kept telling her she needed to be in the hospital getting an IGIV RIGHT THEN, but she was upset and disoriented, so she said she'd call me back later. As much as I hated the thought of her getting in a vehicle, or even walking across the room, I took some comfort that at some point soon she would see a Hematologist. (Her PCP had never seen a case of ITP before today.)
I had no idea this tiny town had a hematologist, thank goodness we do and he seems quite competent. She got right in, they took a bone marrow sample, and then they checked her into the hospital. When the kids and I visited after dinner she was hooked up to a huge IGIV bottle, and I'm breathing easier.
Right now they are treating it as ITP, Tali's condition, and testing to rule out everything else. (That's standard procedure, and I'm so glad they are now operating according to my expectations.) It's funny to be praying it is only ITP, when ITP has been such a scary part of my life, but ITP is better than any of the other things it could be.
I've tried to explain to her several times the process that they use to treat ITP, but she doesn't follow me, or understand that there isn't a calendar we can look at and know when she will be over it. Land they don't even know what causes ITP, not really.
So thank goodness she will listen to the Hematologist and will trust him.

Lord, thank you for Hematologists, and IGIVs, and the people who donate the IGs in the IVs.

(BTW Tali's counts have been over 250k for years now, we just do yearly counts to be sure she hasn't slipped out of remission.)