Down and down the platelets go, where they'll stop no one knows

Round three at the blood clinic was yesterday and yes, Eden enjoyed it as much as all the others. It seems inevitable that every time Eden seems to have finally gotten over the previous hospital visit (no more nightmares, touchy feet, fear of scrubs [okay, so I made that one up]) we have to take her back in again. Wait, it is inevitable; she has weekly appointments. No wonder it seems like this stuff is never done.

So after all the screaming, the bleeding, the farting (usually accidental as a result of all the screaming, unless it was me--those are usually planned well in advance), and the crying, what was the score from the judges?

177,000.

177,000 (or, as the phlebotomists say in their crazy lingo, the one-seven-seven) is still in the normal range, but only just--normal is 150,000 to 400,000 (the one-five-oh to the four-oh-oh yeah!). Yeah, I know the lab tech who gave us the score said it was a great score and perfectly normal, but she's not the fretting parent of a baby with blood issues, is she? Well, she could be for all I know, but the point is that Eden's been knocking off about 300,000 platelets a week for the last couple of weeks, and you've got to wonder where it's going to STOP.

We're holding our breath for 176,000.

And since we still don't have any photos of the screaming banshee post-needle prick, here's a couple of her showing off how dorky and consumerist her parents are. You'd think we'd be embarassed to post these, but no. We have no shame.