GREAT NEWS!!!

*Not medical advice.*

We are praising the Lord for Elianna's first NORMAL blood test results!! We had to take Elianna to the ER very late on Saturday night with a fever. We were already exhausted and so stressed out, anticipating a hospital admission and a very long night in the hospital. The doctor on call ordered the standard blood tests for her, and we were all shocked when her neutrophil count came back in the normal range. Since she has been diagnosed with chronic benign neutropenia, her neutrophil count was normally around 200-300. Anything under 500 is severe neutropenia. This time her count was 1900 (normal range)! The highest she has ever been is 600. After examining her and her results, the doctor was confident she only has a virus, so we actually got to go home! We still didn't sleep much, but this time it was from the excitement of the possibility she could be healed from her neutropenia.

Today we saw her pediatrician, and we all agreed it would be good to repeat the count in a few weeks once she is over this virus just to be sure it isn't a freak thing since she's sick. From what I have read, it is possible in some cases for neutrophils to go up during a virus and then go back down and have neutropenia once you're "healthy" again. Elianna has never had this happen yet, but a few people in our online support group have had this happen. Regardless, it is a good sign that her body can produce and release a normal amount of neutrophils. It is quite common for children with her type of neutropenia to eventually "outgrow" it.

So today Elianna has been talking about how she can go to the zoo, pet kitties & puppies, go to kids' birthday parties, and do all the things we avoided doing since she's been neutropenic.

It is crazy awesome to think how this will change our life (and her's) if she's actually healed of this...

Thank you, Jesus!

We serve a mighty God!