June 9th...Big Day!

The last somewhat healthy day...bundled up and went for a walk.

So, everyone probably already knows about Deklan, my little sweetheart, and his valiant fight with a liver that eventually crapped out on him. In his few short months here on earth, he taught me so many lessons about myself and my own life. He changed my life in more ways than I could ever explain. Through his fight my eyes were opened in regard to the medical establishment. I saw a lot of things I didn't agree with and I realized there is a huge need for patient advocacy, but in all there are amazing things being done for sick and/or chronically ill children.

That being said, one of the things that struck me the most and has stayed with me since has been the demand for blood products. Over the course of Deklan's life of 4 months and 12 days he needed a total of 119 blood products. His treatments involved dialysis and since he was so small the CRRT machine had to be primed with donor blood. A new circuit (which has to be changed and re primed with fresh blood) was necessary every 4 days. So that in itself requires a lot of blood product. He also suffered from an infection which seemed to eat platelets. At one point he needed to be transfused and there were only 9 units of platelets ready for use in all of Manitoba! For a period of time Deklan stayed on the cancer ward. So I got to see that there was a HUGE need for platelets there as well. Chemotherapy causes a low platelet count, as does a failing liver, which Deklan knew about all too well.

There was a night in Toronto that I almost lost my little sweetheart. He had a superficial wound that in any one of us would have scabbed over and been no big deal. But because of his failing liver his blood was not clotting as it should and he almost bled to death. He would have, had there been no blood to replace what he had lost. He needed volume, man! I sat there as they pushed vial after vial of red blood, platelets, albumin, even Factor VII. THAT BLOOD SAVED MY SON'S LIFE! Sure, he died one short week later, but in that week his siblings had a chance to fly to be with him. His grandparents had a chance to tell him they loved him.

So this is my appeal to everyone...Go give blood! It's something we can all do with minor discomfort. And it is vital in so many treatments. It has been 6 months since I had Deklan's beautiful name etched into my skin. That is the mandatory waiting period for donation after a tattoo. My appointment is June 9th, and I'll be giving my first of hopefully 119 donations that day. Who's in?