Blood Transfusion

A week after Thanksgiving the twins went to the doctor to get their first RSV vaccine. While there I told the doctor that I thought Spencer looked too pale. Well, he did a blood test and it came back with his iron level being too low. The doctor then sent us to the hospital for a more exact blood test to see if he was truly anemic. Well, that test showed that his levels were even lower than they thought. His hematocrit level was 19, and that is low even for a premie. So, back to the hospital we went. This time we had to go to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo. It is closer than Primary Childrens, but it is still 30 minutes away. Luckily this time it was just an over night stay. I thought it was funny that our one month old had already spent time in three different hospitals. Anyway, I didn't get to the hospital that night until midnight because Jeff and I had already planned on going to The Forgotten Carols in Orem. I thought for sure we'd be done earlier, but we weren't. Luckily we'd already been admitted earlier. The hospitalist probably just thought we were crazy. Jeff ended up staying home with the other kids while my parents went with me to the hospital. They had been watching our kids while we went out. I felt bad that they had to stay up so late, but I was grateful to have them there. It was nice having someone else to walk the halls with at 3 am while the nurses tried over and over to get the IV into Spencer. If I had stayed in the room I probably would have hit them. It's just the mother instinct. I'm glad my parents made me leave for a few minutes. The blood transfusion went well, and Spencer looked 100 % better the next day. After the transfusion his crit level was 32 which was what the doctors had hoped for. He still has to take iron, but he's much better.