March 7 - Infusion #24

March 7 - Infusion #24

We got over to the infusion a little early as Levi was up early and as I am now taking a class on Tuesday nights and due to some current car troubles on Jay's side we needed to do infusion and then drive home from Lebanon with enough time for me to turn around and drive back to Concord.

We had told Levi that if he was a good boy this morning that there would be a surprise for him! So he was very good. He went right in to the jungle room and took off his jacket and his shoes. Then he went right over to do work with Nurse A and he set pretty still for everything. Nurse T was ready for him right after that so we went in and got him accessed. Levi was being silly and wanted to try the mask on! It was cute! The access went great as always.

Since Dr. V hadn't put the orders in yet we couldn't get his Bennadryl started so Levi was off to the playroom. The child life specialist was in there getting everything ready for the day and she got out the playdough stuff for Levi including new play dough. He had a blast making things with that.

 After a few minutes of playing play dough Dr. V came in to talk to us. Levi was very concerned with telling him that he was playing play dough. I think he was basically telling him to go away and that he didn't want to talk to him right then or get prodded by him right then as he was busy. Of course we didn't really listen to him. Dr. V talked to us for a few minutes and then he looked at Levi. Levi's rash has been much worse lately so we talked about that for a few minutes. Otherwise everything looked great.

Nurse T came in with his bennadryl and got it started while Levi was playing nurse with the babies. It was very cute! He was doing blood work on the baby while Nurse T was playing with his tubbie. It's nice to see that he isn't afraid of any of what is going on and will even mimic it in play. Since Levi was being very good playing we decided to stay in the playroom even though he was connected.

 Levi and Daddy were playing dinosaur. The dinosaur was getting Daddy's pants leg. Daddy asked Levi if the dinosaur could get the ninja turtle (that is on Levi's sock) thinking it would be funny/cute for the dinosaur to eat Levi's toes, but Levi outsmarted him. He said "yup" and proceeded to reach down and take his sock off and shove it in the dinosaurs mouth while saying "roar" and "munch munch" it was super cute!

It wasn't long after that that his plasma was ready so we took the opportunity to go potty while Levi wasn't connected and then he got hooked up to the plasma. We did a few laps around in the wagon. A trick when Mommy is pulling the wagon, Levi is sitting in the wagon, and daddy is pulling up the rear with the IV pole. But we did it and had fun. As it was getting close to 10 (the time that Daddy needed to go meet Levi's surprise) we decided to head back to the room with a snack and a movie. Levi insisted on Planes! We settled in to the chair.

 It wasn't long before Levi was bored watching his movie. He asked for bubbles. Nurse T brought in this pretty cool bubble bear, which would have been really awesome if it had worked well, which it sadly didn't. But we blew enough bubbles to make Levi happy.

 The 15 minute vitals check came and we were all noticing that Levi's cheeks were bright red! We took a look at the rest of him and he looked ok. His blood pressure and temperature came back well and he was being a pretty good boy. A typical toddler, not the hyper can't sit still, itchiness. So we decided to continue on at the elevated speed with a little extra monitoring.

Since that pump is only used for Bennadryl, it's not even turned on during plasma, so he can push all the buttons he wants. 

 Levi wasn't really up for his movie, and his surprise needed a snack so we got out the art supplies. Levi started coloring and doing stickers.

 And then his surprise came!!! Nonna (aka Joyce, Jay's mom) stopped by!! She happened to be at the hospital with Gary as he had some appointments and she was just waiting around, so she came and spent some time with Levi.

Levi being silly and showing off for Nonna. 

The infusion was flying by. I took a look at how much time was left on the plasma machine and realized that if we were going to do lunch we needed to do it soon. Since Jay was enjoying being with his mom I decided to make the trek down. This was the first time that I have ever left Levi while he was hooked up to plasma for longer then to get a drink from the fridge or to go pee. It was only 12 minutes, but it felt like a long time! But at the same time it was good for both Jay and Levi to realize that Mommy doesn't always have to be there.

We finished watching planes and ate lunch. Nonna headed out to go get lunch with Gary. Before long the infusion was done and we were getting unaccessed. Levi went to the playroom for a few minutes as always after. The little girl from David's House the night before was in there so the played together for a few minutes. Levi also ran a bunch which is good to get some energy out. Levi was able to pick out a brand new book for Dr. Seuss' birthday, thank you to whoever donated those for the kids, we added "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" to our collection. Then we headed out.

Levi and Crayon making a run for the door.

 For the first time in 4 infusions Levi fell asleep in the car! After only about 15-20 minutes in the car! It was crazy! But muchly needed for him.

This infusion was a little strange for Levi. Levi generally averages about 7 juice boxes during an infusion plus 1-2 sippy cups of milk. As we were getting ready to leave I realized that his milk sippy was still full and so was his juice. He had barely drank 2 tablespoon fulls the whole day! Very strange. Otherwise things went well! We will be back in three weeks. We discussed our need to move around some infusions due to our upcoming vacation and Dr. V was very open to that and so we made a plan. It's nice to know what will be happening.