Pamidronate Infusions, ugh

So we're here.  Casey went in first.  Infusion Bay is very busy today.  They only had space for one boy at first so we volunteered Casey.

Julie and I got him out of his chair and comfy on the bed.  IV came right in to get him started.  He needed some warm packs and towels because his hands and arms were freezing, but it's about 8 degrees out so I'm not surprised.

IV Nurse Micki got his IV in pretty quickly (for us, anyway).  Success on first try in left wrist.

Colin was another story.  He ended up with 3 picks, total.  One successful, finally.  I was not happy but I didn't actually see when they were poking.  Colin was a trooper although he did "OW" a lot and had shed a tear, but no full blown crying.  It took the two IV nurses trying but they were successful in his left antecubital.

Colin was very happy watching movies.  His first one was Tron.  After that I tried reading City of Orphans with him but didn't get too far.  He is going to be in big trouble with Priscilla tomorrow because we didn't read as far as we were supposed to.  Funny how during the movie he hardly "owed" at all but when I was reading he was full of "ows." 

Woozy Colin.

Casey went through periods of being good and being very needy.  He had a grand time yanking the Child Life Specialist's chain :)  Jenny was a good sport about it and played along with him.  He was telling her that he wanted a funny movie/show about animals that is normally on during the day.  He had her scouring the Internet looking for this show--that doesn't exist, lol!  I think she was impressed with his DynaVox use and tried to honor his requests. 

Grump and woozy Casey

Casey was done right at 2:00.  The nurse had called ahead to Dr. Hubbell's office to say we might be a tad late.  We only had to wait for a minute before they took us back and Dr. Hubbell came in right away.  Casey has only one tube which is in his right ear (he's been like this for a couple of years now).  The left ear looked perfect.  His right ear had lots of 'debris' that Dr. Hubbell sucked out.  Julie and I both wish that the suction tubing was clear so we could see what gunk came out of him, lol!  He also looked in the back of his throat because Casey had said it hurt yesterday but it looked nice and healthy to him. 

Interesting aside here.  Yesterday Casey told Julie several times that his throat hurt.  She looked in his mouth and felt around but didn't see anything concerning.  Then, at bed time, I could hear something in Casey's throat when I suctioned his mouth.  It took a lot of work--coughing, saline and pressing on his tongue--but I got a pretty large plug out that was very stringy.  I wonder if that was bugging/hurting him?????   With Casey, it's hard much of the time to know when he's being serious or just telling us tales, so this was interesting to me. 

Colin was still infusing when we were done so Julie and Casey packed themselves up and went downstairs to check out the gift shop.

Finally, Colin was done infusing and had his saline flush and was done by 3:00. 

Headed down to find Casey and Julie.  Got the van.  Loaded up.  Julie drove home.

It was a very weird drive home.  Casey was quiet as a mouse and we are NOT used to that!  I kept asking Nancy if they were okay back there. 

These infusions sure wipe the boys out.  Casey even more so than Colin.  Casey looks pale and puffy and tired.  Colin looks a little pale but is quite full of it and is yelling at Aunt Chris while she plays wii.  Casey goes from being very quiet to fussing loudly, doing a little talking on his DynaVox. 

I felt very comfortable driving the van.  It sits higher than our old van and the nose is longer but it was pretty easy to drive.  YAY!!  It will take us a little bit longer to get used to tying down the boys chairs but we did pretty well.  It would help if it wasn't as cold so we could be more comfortable while we work on positioning and all that.  But it's nice to have these Q'Straint QRT Max tie downs.  It literally takes one hand to secure them and one foot and a hand to undo them.  So much nicer than our old ones that I don't even know the name of!