Blake Pelster
Written by his mom, Kassie Pelster, Elsie, NE
At the end of 2003, our then 3-year-old son, Blake, wasn't acting like himself. He was really tired and moody and we noticed that he had some red dots on his skin. They were about the size of pinheads and looked like blood blisters. I mentioned this to my parents and to my husband, but none of us could explain it.
Then Blake started getting bloody noses. The first one was controllable and was due to a scratch inside his nose. The second bloody nose lasted a little longer, but we just thought he had re-injured his nose. I took him to the doctor to have the spots looked at and to ask about the nose injury and was told that the spots were broken capillaries from a high fever he had had and the bloody nose was just dry air.
On the night of December 15, 2003, Blake's nose started to bleed again and this time it was much more serious. After about two hours, the bleeding slowed down enough that we put Blake to bed. Later on while checking on him, my husband noticed that Blake's abdomen was swollen and his breathing was labored, so we decided we should take him to the emergency room.
The emergency room doctor counted 27 bruises on Blake's legs. I had noticed a lot of bruises, but just figured he was a normal 3-year-old boy. He also noticed the swelling in Blake's abdomen. They took x-rays and did all kinds of other tests. We never imagined the results would turn our world upside down. Our worst nightmare came true. Our barely 3-year-old son was sick—seriously sick. He had Leukemia.
In the early morning hours of December 16, 2003, we made our way to Omaha's Children's Hospital. Blake was very anemic due to the loss of blood and had low platelet counts. He was given a blood transfusion and a platelet transfusion that day and the day after. Blake was in the hospital for one week. After Blake was released from the hospital, we remained in Omaha for two more weeks while we got his condition under control.
Blake's has been receiving chemotherapy treatments since December 17, 2003 and we expect him to be finished in August of 2007. He has had seven blood and 10 platelet transfusions since the beginning of his therapy. Fortunately, he is doing wonderful and hasn't needed any transfusions since August 2004. Only a couple of times were Blake's transfusions delayed due to a short supply. I found that to be a miracle.
The generous donations of blood and platelets have helped our son fight this ugly disease and also saved his life. His blood counts have been seriously low, and without the transfusions, he would not have made it through. Because of selfless donors, we now have a very active, healthy 4-year-old son, who loves life and enjoys every minute of it! On behalf of me; my husband, Matt; Blake's little sister, Denay; and the rest of our family, thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Blake is on his way to living a long, healthy and normal life!
Kassie, Matt, Blake and Denay Pelster