B+

My sweet boy had some (unexpected) blood work done. He was such a trooper and managed to bat his tear-filled eyes and crack a smile, when they were finished taking 2 vials of blood. It was heartbreaking, but I have to take a step back and prepare myself for what lies ahead. It will be much harder than watching him have blood drawn.

For some reason when the twins were born, they never took blood to test their blood type. I am not sure why, but now we know that Landon is B+. I am sure Gray is also, but I just can't justify putting him through that just for my own knowledge.

So, now I am off to call the Red Cross and find out who else locally we could plan his blood donation through. We have chosen to use a direct donor instead of the blood bank at the hospital. From what I have been told, our donors would donate within 2 weeks of surgery, and the blood would be over-nighted to Dallas. Then it would be ready on standby in the case he needed a transfusion during surgery. We hope that is not the case, and are taking every precaution to lessen the chance (Procrit), but 20% of Dr Fearon's patients still require one. (That is much lower than the national average with is almost 100%)!
So far we know that my dad and James' mom are both B+!!

Procrit

Right now our focus is getting insurance to cover the cost of Landon's Procrit injections. He will receive 3 shots, starting on June 10th, once a week until surgery. These injections will make Landon's little body produce more red blood cells.

Procrit is a man-made form of protein that helps your body produce red blood cells. Dr Fearon recommends that Landon receive these injections to increase his blood supply, so any blood loss during surgery, would be less detrimental. Our hope is that Landon will not require a blood transfusion, and this is one precaution that will reduce the chance of a transfusion.

Our insurance has just denied our second request for this shot. We are appealing once again and our praying for some coverage because this is a very expensive medicine.

Please pray, cross your fingers, rub a rabbits foot, whatever brings you luck, DO IT! ;)

Here is an article by Dr Fearon regarding the Procrit Injections.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12045535?dopt=Abstract

Technical Difficulties :(

We are having technical difficulties over here at the B house. I have a few things to update on Landon, so look for a post in the next next to two!!

We have a date!!!!

June 29th.

Much earlier than we had hoped, but this is when Dr Fearon feels the best time is to do his surgery. He will turn 10 months on June 27th. We were thinking his surgery would be mid to end July, so now we just have to get used to the idea. We will fly to Dallas on the 26th. Landon will have a full day of pre-op appointments on the 28th, and his surgery will be sometime on the 29th.

This is all so crazy.

Waiting on a date

Just wanted to post a quick update, because I have gotten some texts over the Easter weekend asking how we are doing. We are waiting for a call from Dallas tomorrow with Landon's surgery date. Dr Fearon has typed the Surgery Orders, and we will be looking at a date between the end of June to the end of July, so we have about 3 months of waiting......

After his orders are processed, they will contact our insurance. Please keep us in your prayers that our insurance will cover his surgery. Dr Fearon is out of network and out of state, but he is the best. We are very hopefully that we will not have to fight our insurance to get coverage.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!