Anemia Treatment has Begun!

My first IV Iron Infusion was this morning. All went well! We met with Dr. T. first. He had done another set of blood work last Wednesday and wanted to go over the results with us. My iron was still very low. My hemoglobin is low but had gone up a little bit. My folic acid, B12, and D3 levels were all normal, so no shots! The infusion process took longer than we expected. Dr. T. had told us it would take about 30 minutes. Once in the infusion room the nurse told us she doesn't like to do that amount of iron in less than an hour and a half. So, we settled in for a little longer morning than planned. They hooked me all up to the IV, and then brought it the good stuff - it looks like Coke. It's dark brown. It was gross. I kept thinking that it is really weird to watch all of this dark brown stuff pumping into my veins. But, oh well. It didn't hurt. :)

I had no allergic reactions which is apparently the most common reaction; though most people don't have any reactions at all. The biggest "issue" we had was that my IV site keep aching. It turned out it was because my arm was really, really cold. They ended up wrapping my arm in a heating pad and that helped some, so we know how to fix that now if we need to. They give me Tylenol and Benadryl at the start to help with any reactions, etc. I think they do this each time. By the time the infusion was finished the Benadryl was well in my system, and I was S-L-E-E-P-Y! :) We grabbed lunch and came home, and I crashed!

So, it was a very successful morning despite being longer than we anticipated. One of the strangest things about the whole experience was sitting in a room full of people receiving chemo. It was weird to be sitting there hooked up to the same machine as them, and it was hard to think about those sweet individuals sitting there with poison pumping into their veins. I pray that all of them experience success from their treatments!

The plan is to continue this same dosage (300 mg of iron) once a week for 4 weeks - today was week 1. So, 3 more infusions, and then on week 5 I will go back in to have more blood work done to see if it brought my numbers up to where they want them to be before I deliver. That's as far as we know right now!

I appreciate all of the prayers so much. Taylor and I had been a little nervous about this since it was unknown territory. After today we are feeling much better about the actual infusions. We are still praying and need prayers that this will do what it is supposed to do so that I can have a healthy delivery! We love each of you! Thank you again for lifting us and our sweet son up to the Father!