Baby returning home after birth from the hospital has always been a joyeux affair for most. Imagine the shock upon entering the hospital's nursery room to find your child missing from his crib? The nurse informs you in a solemn voice "Your child has just been transferred to NICU". Shock yes! But no reaction from the mom, she was speechless. The father could only asked in a voice slightly audible, "What happened?"

Nursed explained to the pair of almost in trance parents that baby's lip started bleeding which couldn't be stopped.Hence a blood test showed he had Thrombocytopenia (low platelet count). Trust me, when one's in the hospital eager to find out the well being of another. Big medical term words sound extremely scary. Entering the NICU, it was heart shattering. Placed in a plastic baby bassinet, the baby only in his diaper was hooked onto many tubes running all over his tiny body. An hour before all that happened, baby was sleeping soundly in the arms of his mother all dressed up ready to go home the very first time.

Doctors stood beside the already "stoned" parents explaining what was going on. Every single word coming from the doctor's mouth sounded alien to the mother. The mother could only stand there crying louder than most of the tiny patients in that small room.

Being told that normal blood count should be at least 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per micro-liter of circulating blood. Baby had only 80,000. The following 3 weeks was hell, each day baby was poked twice for blood test. It came to a point his tiny veins on his hands were swelling so bad they had to poke his feet. Every morning at 730am, the mother will be waiting for the phone call from the pediatrician informing of the blood count results.

Every day, baby's blood count results fluctuated like the shares board of Wall Street. On good days it will rise slightly higher than 100,000 getting our hopes high of discharging baby soon. There also came a point baby's blood count dropped to 57,000 at the lowest. Blood tests went on like this everyday for 3 weeks. Baby even had a few bags of blood platelets transfusions. The sight of seeing all those tubes on baby's body was like having a million needles poke into mom's heart.

1 week before baby turned Full-Month, the parents were greeted by baby's pediatrician's huge grin on his face. The following words coming out from his mouth sounded like music "your baby's safe to be discharge under extreme home care". No words could explain the sense of relief the mother felt. She could only repeat the words "Thank You, Thank You, Thank You" like a robot with limited vocabulary.

Baby returned home for the very first time after 3 weeks. His returning was a big hoo-ha with almost everyone there to greet him. The mother however turn into a big freak the following days upon his return. She scans everyone from top to toe that comes near the baby's crib. She insist everyone scrub like a surgeon before handling baby, she eyes Baby like a hawk. 1 week after his discharge, there was there full month baby celebration for baby. His mother wasn't the least friendly towards most of the well-wishes that came. She was afraid that they might hurt him unknowingly and cause him to bleed externally or internally. Baby couldn't afford to bleed at all! He could have bled nonstop. The mom probably offended lots of friends and relatives that day. Could you blame the mother?

Today, that baby turns 6 years old. He grew into a healthy boy without any relapse of Thrombocytopenia. His mother stills goes into a frenzy when he falls and bleed, but no longer eyes like a hawk upon whoever that goes near him.
That baby's name is Javier. My Son.