The Rest of Round 2

April 25th, cont:

Oliver was supposed to have his Rituxan infusion on the Thursday the 25th in the evening.  Our nurse for the 12-8 shift was specially certified to give chemo agents and fully anticipated starting the infusion. As it turned out, there was a question at the pharmacy on the concentration that was ordered. (Apparently they only do round numbers and it was ordered with .5 in the dosing).  This meant that we would have to wait until the ONE doctor in the entire hospital that can order these drugs was able to review the order and make the necessary changes.  So, we waited.

We took Oliver back to Child Life a bit, but at this point he couldn't stand, so he wasn't as interested in playing with the train table as when he could navigate by himself.  We did do a little artwork and made friends with a little girl who was there with her family while fighting a post-op infection.  We did a lot of hall-walking to keep the little man happy.

8pm came and went and our overnight nurse was certified as well...Tyler, our only male nurse in nearly 2 weeks of hospital stay.  He was cool and I think Oliver liked him more...probably because Tyler never really had to do anything medical to him.  It ended up being a nice break and we slept straight thru until morning.  The shift had changed at midnight and we had another new nurse and still no Rituxan.

April 26th:
Round 2 of IVIG was started sometime in the early morning, Oliver slept through most of it.  We finally got word during rounds that the Rituxan would be ready sometime that morning.  The resident said we'd be released Saturday afternoon, a full 24 hours after the infusion should have occurred...but THANKFULLY, Dr Singh said she saw no reason why we shouldn't be home on Friday night.  We were thrilled to hear that.  Eventually 4 certified nurses later, they started the Rituxan and Oliver tolerated it with no reaction.  (I guess both the IVIG and Rituxan can cause anaphylactic shock, among other things).  We had already met with the discharge planner- a new experience for us- who helped coordinate all the different home care providers we would need in the coming weeks.  So, as soon as the Rituxan was done, including the post meds and hydration, we packed up and waited.  We checked out and were in the car by 4:30 pm.

My parents were on their way to Grand Rapids to attend my sister's graduation from GVSU on Saturday morning, so we came home to a quiet house.  Ollie ate dinner and hung out a little bit.  Then we gave Oliver his oral meds and ACTH injection and got him ready for bed.  I was anxious to see if he would sleep through the night now that he was back in his own bed....