In an effort to truly determine if I'm experiencing a serum sensitivity/sickness we had decided after my Penicillin allergy test came back negative to give one of the drugs a trial run while I was "healthy" to help isolate whether my symptoms are directly related to the medication or the infection. The only way to do this was to place an IV and administer a full dose of the medication. In this case it was Ceftazidime.
Wednesday morning, I was up early and on my way to nurse treatment to have an IV line placed. This gives me the biggest anxiety. Generally, it takes multiple attempts or they are unsuccessful and refuse to try again and must bring in a specialty nurse.
Upon check-in I was greeted by a nurse who has treated me in the past. She respects my anxiety, health condition and preferences, which makes a world of difference. She placed me in a quite room and immediately hot packed the arm and hand that showed the most promise. While we let the warmth of the hot packs do their magic I read. Reading helps calm my nerves because I don't think about what lays ahead but rather I become enveloped in the characters of what I'm reading. After about 20 minutes she came back in and prepped me. In one swift poke she was in the vein, drawing back blood and flushing. Success!
After the medication was fully administered I sat for about 2 hours under observation to see if I would have any immediate reactions or an anaphylactic response. I did not. I remained hopeful that I would not react and was prepped to head home.
Wednesday morning, I was up early and on my way to nurse treatment to have an IV line placed. This gives me the biggest anxiety. Generally, it takes multiple attempts or they are unsuccessful and refuse to try again and must bring in a specialty nurse.
Upon check-in I was greeted by a nurse who has treated me in the past. She respects my anxiety, health condition and preferences, which makes a world of difference. She placed me in a quite room and immediately hot packed the arm and hand that showed the most promise. While we let the warmth of the hot packs do their magic I read. Reading helps calm my nerves because I don't think about what lays ahead but rather I become enveloped in the characters of what I'm reading. After about 20 minutes she came back in and prepped me. In one swift poke she was in the vein, drawing back blood and flushing. Success!
After the medication was fully administered I sat for about 2 hours under observation to see if I would have any immediate reactions or an anaphylactic response. I did not. I remained hopeful that I would not react and was prepped to head home.
About an hour after I got home and settled the chills and an ache in my joints began. I knew right away this would be a long night. I took a hot bath to help ease the aches and pains and put on warm pj's. By the time B got home I was in full reaction. Upset stomach, severe joint pain and swelling along with the chills. By 6pm I was in bed trying to sleep it off. I was incredibly thankful this was just one dose and that the symptoms would ease off as the medication made their way through my system and that I didn't have to give another dose thus continuing the cycle.
Needless to say the reaction is not the infection but my body's reaction to the medication. Not what I was hoping for, however, now we know which direction to go in terms of treatment. We, doctors and I, are in collaboration on what that looks like.
CF can be frustrating. I'm choosing to not let this frustration get under my skin but rather remain as positive as possible and trust that we'll get this figured out. I'm gonna take it one step at a time and rejoice in the small victories like; the IV was placed in one attempt………ONE!!!
~Doodlin'
That is annoying, but I guess at least you know now. I went through a Colonoscopy last week to rule something out.. The 24 hour prep not fun, and end result.. told me it was just an infection. All that for a silly infection. go figure. But yeah, its only way we get results I guess. -your fellow cf blogger, Cheriz (www.lifeofcheriz.blogspot.com)
ReplyDeleteCheriz- It is annoying, yet slightly relieving to sort of have some answers. I've heard that prep for the colonoscopy is worse than the actual procedure. Another CF'er I know just did it a few weeks ago, I hope I'm not next…hahaha!
ReplyDelete