THESE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN'

Just got a phone call from the infusion nurse. She'll be here tomorrow to do some blood work on Colby. He had his Zometa infusion last Monday, at home! As a gentle reminder, Colby gets infusions for his low bone density. You know, like post menopausal little old ladies do also. Usually Cincinnati Children's makes patients do this infusion at the hospital. There can be side effects, anything from minor flu-like symptoms to major respiratory reactions, and they like the patient to stay overnight for observation. Well, Colby has already has this infusion 3 other times. He has had very mild side effects, a slight fever and some overall "feel bads." So I convinced the endocrinologist Colby could do it at home. No way am I putting Colby in the hospital and exposing him to germs and other disgusting stuff this close to surgery. There is a LOT of coordinating that takes place with this. Insurance shipped the medication and supplies separately. Many, many phone calls among Cincy Endocrinology, insurance, Walgreen's Infusion and me. The infusion itself was a piece of cake. It took an hour to run the medication. Then he got fluids for 2 hours, and bing, bang, boom, done. The endocrinologist requires pre-infusion labs. No sweat, we had these done at Cincy when we were getting his other labs done for hematology. Colby also gets labs 2 and 7 days post infusion, all coordinated through Walgreen's Infusion. The 2-day post-infusion labs showed that Colby's potassium was a little low (bottom of the normal range is 3.5, his was 3.3). Endocrinologist said she wanted his potassium checked again the next day. More phone calls and coordinating, but if we weren't in Cincy it was worth it. The next potassium level was going back up, 3.9, winna winna. So tomorrow he'll get his 7-day post infusion labs and hopefully everything will be okey dokie. Colby won't be able to have another Zometa infusion until he is completely healed from surgery, so we're looking at October or November probably.

And here's the really crappy Colby news…one of our nurses quit. The only full time nurse we had, to be specific. She was also the nurse that went to school with Colby, to be more specific. She was very sweet and gave us plenty of notice, but it has been CRAZY trying to find replacements for her. There are 2 nursing agencies involved, the one we use at home and the one the school corporation uses. I've been on the home nursing agency for months anyway because we haven't had enough nurses to cover all the shifts. Now they also had to find a full time replacement for this nurse. Tomorrow will be the new school nurse's first day just her and Colby. She has been shadowing/training for several days, but now our nurse is gone, and this will be this chick's first day with Colby on her own. Yes, you can bet your sweet ass I'll be following the bus and spending the day in the classroom with them. I know she has worked at Colby's school before with another student there, so that eases my mind a bit. And while she was working last week with the other nurse Colby did have a choking episode, so she has experienced that and knows the proper way to treat him. But I'm still a nervous wreck. I can only imagine how Colby is feeling. But never fear, sweet boy, mama will be right there if you need her.

This weekend I've been training 2 new nurses to work here at home with Colby. Yeah, we've met 3 new nurses in the last week or so, like I said, it's been CRAZY. Colby is the most laid back, easy going kid you'll ever see. He just takes it all in stride. All these new people taking care of him, each in their own different little ways. I've said it before and I'll say it again, he is one super-duper amazing kid! Every bit of bullcrap from nursing agency employees, DME companies, nurse scheduling, infusions, phone calls, blah, blah, etc. Worth it! That sweet boy brings far more joy into my life than the other issues/problems that sometimes drag me down. Time for his tuck in. More blogging as I have the time and energy to do it. Adios, amigos.