IV Week

I have made it a point to not let my health issues infiltrate my web log. I think that people open this site looking for a chuckle or some happiness. And I do have plenty of this to share, but some days I don’t. This week my life has been dominated by my IVIG infusions. I don't know what it stands for, what it is, or what it is suppoed to be doing. Each day since Monday, I’ve received a 2.5 hour infusion. The last one will be this afternoon. A nurse has come to our home to administer it. She has to take my temperature and check my blood pressure every 15 minutes! Her name is Kristin and she’s a talker! I guess spending so much time with patients it is a skill you develop. Kara couldn’t take more than five minutes and has conveniently had a lot of afternoon errands to run. She placed an IV catheter in my right wrist on Monday and after Wednesday’s infusion, she removed it. Pulling the tape (as slowly as possible) from my wrist was the most pain I’ve felt in a while! She kept apologizing. Thursday I got a new one in my left wrist, but she had nurse trainee Suzi try to put it in. It didn’t go so well. I was a good sport; she’s got to learn on someone, right? But all the “nurse talk” about veins and stuff, and the pain, caused me to get a little light-headed and clammy. Kristin tried a different vein and it was virtually painless. The infusion itself is not bad at all, but I feel completely wiped out all afternoon and evening. I am looking forward to this being done and I am looking forward to medicine or a treatment that makes me feel better, not worse. See, that’s not uplifting. Sorry. Come back another day; I'll have something good.