How we found Scott's problem

First off - why is this "Skittles" update page? The neighborhood kids took to calling Scott "Skittles" shortly after arriving in the States, as he has a tendency to wear brightly colored shirts most of the time.

That said.....

We've been through a whirlwind over the last week. Everything started when Scott simply "got sick". On Monday, January 22, Scott got sick in the evening. Nothing out of the ordinary. Since we had noticed Scott had been eating a bit less than normal for a couple of weeks and the glands in his throat seems slightly swollen, we made a doctor's appointment for Tuesday, the 22nd. During that visit to his normal doctor, nothing much was actually determined. The doctor thought he may have a bit of a stomach problem that was killing his appetite. Just to be sure, his doctor wanted to do complete bloodwork, which we planned to due on Thursday the 25th, as he had to fast the evening prior to the test.

We never made that visit for bloodwork. On Wednesday afternoon, Scott was acting rather normal. He even went out on his rollerblades for awhile. He came in for dinner and got sick about 15 minutes after eating. Very sick. It was at this time he developed what we later learned was petichiae. Basically the small blood vessels burst around his eyes and back to his ears due to the vomiting. It was this symptom that got us moving very quickly at that time. Within a few minutes, we were off to the After Hours Urgent Care Center about 1 mile from the house to have him checked out.

Arriving at the urgent care center, the doctor instantly asked "How long has he been like this?" When we told her it happened about 30 minutes prior she seemed relieved. He was seen right away, and she quickly wanted to do a basic blood test to determine a Complete Blood Count. The results of her test sent on us the way to St. Joseph's, where we met Dr. Wynn in the Emergency Room. His blood test at that time showed a White Blood Cell count of just over 89,000. A normally healthy person's is in the 4,000-6,000 range. She suspected it was some form of leukemia, but also stated to us she didn't have enough information to verify that diagnosis.

We both are now rather certain she was fully convinced leukemia of some type was causing the problem.