What a Day!

Today began like any other day. We knew what was on the agenda or so we thought we knew. We were told that Donald would get platelets this morning until his platelet count reached 50,000. Once he reached that mark they would send him down to have his central line put it. Boy were we wrong. I was just about to walk out the door to go to work when the nurse came in to unhook him and send him downstairs for the procedure. He had not yet received ANY platelets. His platelet count was only 9,000 when they drew labs this morning. So, we questioned the nurse and she said they wanted to go ahead and take him down for the procedure regardless of his platelet count. Well, we get downstairs and advise the nurse of his platelet count and boy does she look at us strange. She reads the doctors orders and calls to speak with someone with IR and, come to find out, the nurse was supposed to hang the platelets before sending him for the procedure. So, the nurse comes down about 30 minutes later with his platelets but she has nothing to hang them with, no saline, no tubing and no IV pump. The nurse was under the impression that they would have all of that in the IR dept. Guess what? They don't! Now Donald's nurse and the IR nurse are on a search for all of the materials they need to hang his platelets. They finally gather everything they need and find out the tubing they have will not work with the electronic pumps. So, they have to let his platelets run in by gravity and hope they are running in at the right speed. Meanwhile, Donald is getting more and more anxious with every passing minute. We finally get everything in order and speak with one of the techs about his procedure. We are all ready to go back but, wait, Donald can't go to the room yet. They have had an emergency come into the hospital and are presently occupying the room Donald is going into. The tech says it will be about 45 minutes but that works out great because he will have time to finish his platelets before the procedure. Okay! Over 2 hours later we are told the person in the room he is supposed to go in is having some complications so it will be a little longer. That does nothing for Donald's anxiety. They finally decide to take him into another room to perform the procedure where he waits for another hour and then they finally get his central line put in. He was in the procedure room for 1 1/2 hours for a 15 minute procedure. We were downstairs a total of 6 hours for a 15 minute procedure. Unbelievable! Needless to say it has been a very long and tiring day. Oh, did I mention Donald was not allowed to eat past midnight. He was quit hungry when we returned to the room at 4:30 this evening. He is now resting peacefully. His line looks good and is working perfectly. The procedure went fine and that is the most important thing. Regardless of the mishaps and the long wait today, the Lord blessed us with a great outcome. The time kind of flew by for the most part. I just hate that Donald had to sit up in a wheelchair the entire time. I'm sure it did him some good though. Maybe we can get him to get out of the bed a little more often. We know he can do it now! LOL!!! Thanking the Lord for allowing his procedure to go well and praying for continued healing of Donald's body.