Iron Infusion #3

Things went slightly better this week, I think.

When I got there, I had a new nurse assigned to me. I started off with extra low blood pressure again. Now that I think about it, I didnt get it checked before I left...We also started off with piling on the heated hospital blankets. I woke up freezing to the point of shivering, and couldnt stop at all. Those blankets sure are wonderful, so is hot chocolate which they have on hand for patients. She got me all settled and the IV nurse came over to get things started.

Deb gave it the old college try (extra heat, extra sm needles, extra everything) - and came up empty. After a painful poke in the left arm, and trying to thread the catheder, she tried to flush the line only to make me about jump out of the chair. She pulled the line back out, only to discover the catheder hadn't gone in at all...

Good thing (for me and her) was that she stopped with that try and called Erin to do the rest. Erin tried my mid arm on the right again. I about jumped out of the chair anyway, and even with a cute new nurse trying to distract me with chatter, I was not doing so well. The 2nd try didnt go either.

After applying more heat and letting me rest a bit, Erin started hunting on my right wrist. Not a good sign, esp since my left wrist is still bruised and tender from LAST week. It took everything I had to sit in the chair and not move while she poked and dug to get that dumb needle and line in. She finally got it in, though not without both of us being very distressed. She was visually unnerved when she was done, and I was already exhausted. It took an hour to finally get a line in.

She ran the iron with 2 pints of saline over 2 hrs. She ended up having to brace my arm in one position like last week too, as well as securing the line in several places with tape. I tried to sit really still and just read. It was a really long 2 hrs.

When I was finally done, we went through the fun of getting the line back out-undoing all the tape, flushing the line, etc. Being in my wrist it was extra painful coming back out. It also decided to bleed more too. Erin had to put pressure on it longer than usual before she wrapped it up. I know that both of us were still feeling very unsettled.

Both arms were very sore and it was a challenge to get them into a comfy position to drive home. I ended up being so worn out that I took some IB after I got home and slept for 2 hrs. Also really struggled during the evening. My arms were really shaky and I felt pretty crummy. I was back in bed when I put the little peeps down at 730. It took until after 9pm to finally fall asleep though. I am glad that our Saturday is going to be quiet and I can rest as needed. This appt was just plain hard.

This is appt #3. Half-way done. Not sure that Erin or I are looking forward to the next three....Hoping that my arms will be healed enough to give them somewhere to work next week.