What a day we had yesterday. The Hematologist was concerned about John's platelet count(15) and wanted to ensure that the count was boosted before he is scheduled for a bone marrow biopsy. She directed him to Langley Memorial hospital for a transfusion of IVIg and suggested that he take along a book because he could be there for 3-4 hours.
We arrived at 11:20am and registered at the ER as instructed. The nurse said that a request had come in for a platelet transfusion and I told her that it was an IVIg transfusion. "Oh...well there is a fax from the doctor that will explain it". So...we sat...and waited. A lab tech took blood samples...and we sat...and waited. At 3:00pm we were escorted, along with four other people to an airless, unlit space with a dozen chairs and told that we would be called. At 5:00pm a Doctor called us into an empty room and explained that there was some confusion. Apparently the original request mentioned "platelets" and the fax stated "IVIg". I informed him that the transfusion was for IVIg and asked if it had been ordered yet!...Apparently not...and they didn't have a space for John to sit during the transfusion because he required monitoring during the process. When I told him that we had already been there for 5 1/2 hours...he disappeared and returned with a request to follow him. It only took him 10 minutes to find an appropriate spot for John.
At that point I left...phoned the Hematologist and left a concerned message regarding the length of time that this process was taking in comparison to her suggested 3-4 hours!
When I returned at 8:30pm John had just finished receiving the first of four bottles of IVIg (the first one didn't start until 7:00pm) and the expectation was that he would not be finished until between 3-4am!!!!!!!
I went home and tried to sleep...waiting for the phone call to pick him up. At 3:20am the hospital called to say that he was finished!...16 hours later! We fell into bed at 4:00am and are trying to recover today!
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