Poor Parker

I had mentioned yesterday that we had our regular trip to clinic today. The major difference was that Parker was to be getting an IGg infusion via an IV. Those of you who have been reading the blog for some time now will know that we really have not had alot of luck with IVs. When Parker was still on the General Paediatrics Unit he used to get poked quite a bit. It is also when he had his first IV. Then, when we went to the isolation unit, the pokes (taking blood) and IVs continued. By the time Parker was three months old he had exhausted all of the veins in his hands and feet. From then on, any IV had to be taken from a vein in his head. I know that inserting an IV into a child is something that nurses do every day, but inserting an IV into an infant is not. The Hospital for Sick Children have a specialists IV team that sole purpose is to run IVs. But even they had difficulty with Parker in isolation. Even more specialists then them are the neonatal transport team. They are used to working with babies and for that reason, it go to a point where we would only let them run IVs for Parker, especially the ones that go into his scalp.

We knew that Parker was going to have to get an IV today. But it has been almost two months since he has had to get an IV, and almost four months since he had gotten an IV in one of his limbs. For that reason, we figured that his veins would have increased in size a bit and obtaining a vein in a limb would be possible. Unfortunately, for today, the neonatal team was not available so an experienced team of nurses attempted to run the IV for Parker.

After twenty minutes of holding Parker down while he cried uncontrollably, after three attempts at placing an IV in his hand, foot and scalp, we decided that today was not going to be the day for Parker to be getting an infusion of IGg. We spoke with our contact in immunology, and requested that if Parker still needs the infusion next week that they try then. Parker gives blood every Tuesday, and we are hoping that when his results come back Tuesday afternoon his IGg numbers have not decreased any further illustrating that he is actually starting to make his own. The last few weeks his IGg numbers have been decreasing at slower rate each week.

We felt so bad for Parker having to go through that today. We know that it is difficult to get a vein in Parker and for that reason we prefer using the neonatal team for his IVs. The nurses did the best they could and felt absolutely terrible for Parker.

My wife and I know that when we go to Italy Parker will most likely still be difficult to run an IV for and we will have to take that in stride. I know that we may seem to be high strung and difficult as we prepare our son for "The Show" but that is something I feel is important.

Those of you who have seen the movie "Bull Durham" will recall that Kevin Costner, who played a veteran catcher in the minor league worked with a young Pitcher played by Tim Robbins. Costner spent the whole time helping Robbins make his way to the majors. In the movie, the referred to the majors as "The Show". We are playing the part of Kevin Costner right now. We are doing everything that we can as parents to get our son ready for "The Show" in Italy.