Iron infusion
I had my iron infusion last Friday and it wasn’t what I was expecting. Well, I was told to allow an hour, which was fine. I took my iPad and my Kindle with me to use while I was waiting for it to finish. Alas, I got there and the nurse put my purse and my iPad on the bed opposite to where I was located so I didn’t have access to it. When I have donated blood or plasma in the past, that’s how I passed the time and it went really quickly. Instead I ended up overhearing the minor dramas in the triage/nurse area.
The actual procedure went pretty smoothly. I thought I’d be sitting in a reclining chair but instead was given a “bed” to use. I offered my right arm since I have a good vein there but the nurse said there was a bump on the vein and wasn’t keen to use that for fear of damaging it in the future. I think the needle is kind of big…probably much like the needle for plasma donations, I would think, since a similar process occurs. Well, at least part of it is similar. Anyway, after consulting with the doctor, it was decided to use the vein in my wrist and that went fine. In fact it hurt less than the blood drawn for my calcium test earlier in the week. I think that’s pretty good for that location and a big needle.
I had to fill a prescription ahead of time for two vials of iron and bring it with me. The nurse added those to some saline solutions and it was all connected up by the doctor. It was rather boring but it took less than half an hour to finish and then I was on my way home. I had no side effects at all. I thought perhaps I’d had the metallic taste in my mouth later on but that didn’t happen either. I did have a bit of a headache for a couple of days but I have no idea if that was related to the infusion of just my body’s reaction to the wintry sort of weather we had on the weekend.
It’s been almost a week and I don’t feel any different so I don’t really know when I might feel any improved effects. Or perhaps it will be quite gradual…or maybe I won’t notice much changing. I have to do another blood test a month after the infusion to check my iron levels so I will see that is going at that time.
Meanwhile, my calcium test result came back and it was normal so I started taking the vitamin D yesterday. I’m not sure when that will be tested again but rather imagine that it will take a while for that to increase and for my parathyroid level to go down…assuming that’s what happens with it. Hopefully my body will be in better balance of all these things soon.
