Collapsing veins

It took 3 pokes this morning to draw my morning lab. Ever since 2004, I've become a hard stick. It sort of makes me concerned about how they're going to draw blood from me later on in life.

They started infusing Rituximab at 4:30. About 1 1/2 hours before the nurse gave me some Tylenol and Benadryl. The Benadryl was given to me through IV instead of a pill like on Friday. I was sitting in a chair watching TV then. When I got up I was so dizzy. It wasn't like the room was spinning but my head felt like it was floating or circling dazzly. I stumbled a bit while trying to get into bed.

The infusion rates were cut in half, so the nurse started it at 12.5 ml/hr. She, another nurse, and a student nurse stayed in my room for the first 30 minutes. After that, my nurse stayed until the second hour was over. She changed the rate every hour, so by the time her shift ended the med was infusing into me at 75 ml/hr. The highest rate was 100 ml/hr, which was set around 8 pm. I noticed that if everything went well Friday night that the highest rate would have been 200 ml/hr. The infusion finished around 10:30pm, which was when the nurse gave me another dose of Benadryl. I notice that it makes my IV ache badly for about 10 minutes. When I got it in the afternoon I thought the IV was gonna blow again, but my arm wasn't cold, tender or discolored.

I'm scheduled to go home today. I need to get the catheter and IV pulled out. Weekends are slow in the hospital, so who knows when a resident will come to pull out my line. I just hope it's by tonight.

I really wanted to go back to LLH and start volunteering again this week, but I don't think it's a good idea. The plasmapheresis and Rituximab have weakened my immune system. My white blood cell count this morning was only 4 (11 is high, so I'm guessing 7 or 8 is a good number). Plus, someone's going to call me within the next two weeks to schedule me back as an outpatient so I can get the second dose of Rituximab. I'm guessing if my immune system is still weak I'll get some IVIG as well.

I'm just getting use to having the central line in me. It itches like crazy though because they haven't changed the dressing since they got it in me. I realize that I was conscious for a little while when I had the catheter in me in 2004. I remember the itch and nurses changing the dressing.

I'm not really excited to go home since I don't have much to do. The hospital is like a 3rd home to me. I know that's not a good thing to say, but it feels like it. I look forward to taking a good shower and sleeping through the whole night though. :)