"Blood Shots"

Today was another long day. Avarie had to have two tests done today, that seemed like it was going to be simple enough. I knew we would be there for awhile today, but it ended up being even longer and more stressful then I had originally thought it would be. When we first arrived Avarie had to have an IV put in. They were going to inject a radioactive dye (or some type of radioactive thing) into her blood and then test her blood every half hour to see how her kidney's processed it. Its called a GFR test, it tells them how well her kidneys are functioning. IV's are Avarie's major anxiety issue. She calls them "blood shots", she hates them. They got the one placed in her hand ok after a whole lot of screaming and another nurse holding her down. Avarie begged the nurse not to hold her down, but we were all worried Avarie would jerk her hand while trying to put it in, she was hysterical at that point. After we got the IV placed we were sent to NucMed. Thats where they injected the dye. Of course when we got there they IV wasn't working. In the whole 20 minutes it took to get there and wait to be called it had stopped working. So we had to have another IV placed in her other hand. She was beyond hysterical at that point. She actually made herself sick. I think I forgot to explain why they had to place an IV when she has a Hickman that has immediate access to her veins with out any poking. The dye that they were injecting sticks to the tubing and we don't want to destroy her working lines, so an IV has to be placed.
After the IV was placed we went up to the Oncology clinic and hung out until our schedule blood draw times. We were there for about 3 hours hanging out and having our blood drawn every half hour. Well there were only actually 3 blood draws, but they have to wait awhile for the stuff to start processing in the kidneys.
We then also had a CT today. Of course they couldn't keep the IV from earlier in her hand. They had to remove it as soon as they injected the medicine earlier in the day, the reason is because the radioactive material hangs out in the line and will continue depositing small amounts into her blood stream messing up the test. So that meant that we had to do a 3rd IV for the CT. Again they have to use a different line for the CT because of the dye and the way it distrubutes into the blood stream, or some mumbo jumbo like that. She did better for that IV because we medicated her a little before hand. She did great through the CT, which was supposed to be at 2:30 but didn't end up being until almost 4:30. Oh well at least they were able to still fit her in.
Tomorrow is a really important day. We meet with the transplant Dr at 10:30 to discuss Avarie's test results and decide plan everything for her transplant. We will decide which donor to use, the live donor or the cord blood. We will decide which course of chemo's to treat with to kill off her bone marrow and plan the exact transplant dates. We were given a small peek into what way the Dr's are thinking about going today, but I will hold off telling about it until we meet tomorrow with her and make the final decisions. I'll be able to explain it all better then.
Oh by the way has anyone ever tried to actually navigate OHSU, its huge and crazy. We had her IV placed in the actual OHSU building and then had to go to NUC Med in the Sam Jackson building and then to the Oncology clinic at Doernbecher(which is a different building too) and then back to a different floor in OHSU again for the CT. The place is huge and like a maze sometimes trying to find your way up certain elevators to get to the skybridges that go across to the other buildings and then down one elevator to get to the other elevator to go up to get to the other sky bridge to the other building. They are somewhat connected its just a crazy maze trying to find your way through it. At least I know we won't get bored when we're staying there, Craig and I will be able to just go and explore when Avarie is asleep and I don't think we will ever be able to see all of the hospital and learn our way completely around. The place is enormous.