Dell got 33% new blood

Well, it’s over and we are happy. It was a very stressful time until it will all infused into the body. He did very well, got a little pink but never acted like he was uncomfortable.

The picu dr. put him into an almost sleep stage. They put the line in an artery in the foot. It took about 15 minutes. He slept about 2 hours into the procedure. They told us, based on his weight, he has about 800 cc’s in his body and 350 cc’s was withdrawn. They withdrew 10 cc’s at a time, over a 3 hour period. A 2 year resident did the withdrawal while a picu nurse took his vitals every 5 minutes.

It was not plasmapherisis but whole blood. The neurlogist explained that he wanted to “take something bad in Dell and replace it with something good.”

We did bloodwork before and after the blood was infused.

The dr. is worried about doing so much ivig on him, his total protein is a little high but not too bad. We have been doing it every 7 days for about 2 months but do not see that it is working. The dr. stated, why do all this ivig and not get anything in return. We have not discussed the new schedule or what we will be trying in addition. We did not do steriods last week or this week.

After the infusion, he received 20 grams of ivig, 2 grams/kg. over a 12 hour period.

I will keep you updated regarding how we think the blood worked or did not work.

Lori