Day 15, Vampire

Maddy got two pieces of news this morning. The first bit of news was positive, her antibodies are down by 40%! The doc said that is good and she should be able to finish up her treatments after this round of pheresis and chemo. Then he wants her to get IVIG every month after this to help reduce the risk of chronic rejection. The not so good news is that her blood count has been on the decline and she needs to receive a blood transfusion. No big surprise there. After all they did take blood from her every hour on the hour yesterday! So this morning they gave her some IV potassium and some magnesium in preparation for the blood. I'm guessing she will be getting whole blood but she can't remember what the doctor said. Oh and they had to give her some weird shot in the back of the arm that has left a nice welt. Poor kid.

Anyway, we are still waiting on the transfusion. Hopefully things will still be looking up over the next few days and we will get out of here by the weekend. But I don't want to jinx it.

Oh, and I got her a smoothie on the way back from work! I'm an awesome dad! Ha Ha.

4:30 PM Blood is here.

They finally got Maddy's transfusion ready. She will be getting 2 units of whole blood. Because she has had an allergic reaction to blood products in the past they will be infusing the blood over an extended period, 3 1/2 hours for each unit, and monitoring her vitals the whole time. So she may be finished by 11PM if we are lucky. That means she is tethered to her IV and a blood pressure cuff for the duration.

 

Now we wait to see if she has an allergic reaction. She may get hives just from the thought of the possibility of getting hives!

Posted with Blogsy