infusion woes

gabs had another infusion yesterday, her eighth overall, and fourth with the actual medication. and it sucked. really bad.

we had to be there at 8:30am so that we would have time to drive home afterward. not a big deal, as we assumed that [based on previous experience] we'd be done and on the road by 10:00am, and home at 5ish. however, we quickly learned that the guy who typically does the actual infusion (and by that i mean that he who actually sticks the catheter needle into gabs' arm) had apparently quit on friday, and they were not prepared for his absence on monday.

so, they had some other guy come in to do the stickin,' but after watching another patient wince and curse for 15 minutes at his efforts, we were less than ecstatic at the prospect of having him work on gabriele next. the other patient decided to leave and come back in a few days (when they were able to acquire an actual infusion nurse), but since we had to have it done that day, gabriele was up to bat.

i'll skip ahead 3 hours. at this point, gabriele was sitting under a blanket, sobbing, with the needle finally in...only it was in the back of her hand instead of her elbow, and she had holes in both elbows and the other hand from being stabbed around 20 times with needles of varying sizes and types, and by three different people no less. (they even called in an infusion nurse from some other clinic across town to come help. it didn't.) at one point during the ordeal gabs had to get up and walk around to shake off the impending nausea and the prospect of passing out, and at another point i had to leave her side to go sit down because i was about to pass out from watching her cry while they wiggled the needle around in her hand. (ugh, it's making me queasy just thinking about it...)

in the end, yes, she got the medicine, and some gnarly bruises and track marks, and what amounts to PTSD, i'm sure. she's doing somewhat better today, but damn this frickin' RA and all the trouble it causes.