Blood Transfusion #5

Carter spent the day yesterday in the hospital again. Not exactly how we envisioned our Saturday going, but it could've been A LOT worse. I mentioned in the last post that Carter was close to needing a blood transfusion at our last appointment. The nurse sent his blood to get typed and stuff (I don't know what else they do...) in case we needed to come in for a transfusion later in the week. The typing etc only lasts for 3 days, so until Fri. The nurse reminded me that Friday morning was the latest I could call in order to have the transfusion in the clinic and not have to wait that extra hour for the blood tests. The doctor made it sound like he would be fine until our next appointment. So all week Carter was totally fine, running around like crazy, not needing naps.... until Friday afternoon. Of course. It just hit him so fast. He got so tired and grumpy and looked extra pale and was very sensitive, didn't want us to touch him. He asked me to carry him to bed at 5:00. He woke up at 6:30 and then went back to bed at 7:00. He didn't sleep well, woke up every couple hours. We called the doctor Sat morning and she told us to head to the ER for a transfusion. We got all packed up and headed up there. There's a few drawbacks of being treated in the ER instead on the oncology clinic. The main one is that the nurses in the ER, although they're great, aren't used to working with cancer patients all the time so things like accessing his port can be a bit more of an ordeal. This was only his second time being accessed awake and it would've gone pretty well if the needle was placed a little better. I was sure to put the numbing cream on before we left our house and it worked a lot better this time. It was on for longer and I could tell that it made a big difference. Last time he could most definitely feel the needle going in. This time, his crying didn't get worse when she actually poked him so it seems that he couldn't really feel much more than the pressure. Anyways, once the needle was in, she couldn't draw blood from it. She kept having to move the needle around (while still inserted) and push it in further and pull it out a little bit to try and get it working. Carter was just screaming and telling her to stop. His hands were shaking and I'm pretty sure he's traumatized for life now. It was awful. She was about to have the IV specialist come in when it finally started to work. So she took some blood and started IV fluids. Blood transfusions are just all about waiting. Which leads me to another drawback of being in the ER instead of upstairs. Carter can't leave his room at all. There's so many sick people coming in and out of there all day long that it's just too risky. So from waiting for the blood tests then waiting for the blood to be ordered then the actual 3 hour transfusion, he was there for about 6 hours. That's a long time for a 3 year old boy to just sit on a hospital bed. Oh well, it's for his own good, right? And he's doing much better today. Much much better. The worst part was when I told him that they were going to give him some more blood and his response was, "So I don't die?" He's too smart for his own good.