Still Masked

After being home for 2 days, we headed back to our second home to have some blood work done today.  They told us to plan on being there for a while because more than likely Averi was going to need a red blood transfusion.  When we left on Monday her hemoglobin had been hovering right above the transfusion level for a couple of days.  Red blood cells take at least 2 hours to transfuse, after waiting for them to be transferred to the clinic, so I was planning on being there all day.

So we packed up the diapers and toys and feeds and blankets and magazines...and headed over to the clinic.  This is a little nerve racking because we have to walk down the halls past tons of possibly sick people not wearing masks.  I always leave her in her car seat (thank goodness she is still small enough for an infant seat) and put her in the stroller with a blanket over her head, both sun visors up, and maybe a blanket over those as well.  You can never be too cautious, right?

Whenever we go we wait, then they take vitals, then we wait, then we go back for the blood draw, and then we wait for the results.  Today was nice because Averi had to get a dressing change (the dressing over her broviac site) and a cap change (the caps on the ends of her broviac line) and they were able to do it while we were waiting for the blood work to come back (both have to be changed once a week when we are at home).  What blew my mind was that the nurses didn't even wear masks while working with Averi.  Hello, she has almost no immune system and I'm not wearing this mask for fun!

(I ran an errand yesterday and came home to find Averi snuggling with Grandpa.  Yes, the look of confusion on Averi's face is because he is wearing a little kid mask.)

When the preliminary results came back, Averi's hemoglobin had actually gone up a little on it's own - no transfusion!  She also had an ANC of 178, a great improvement from 88 two days ago, but still way below the "go home" of 500.  So we are all stuck in masks for a little bit longer but at least we got to spend the rest of the day at home. :)  The doctor doesn't want us to come back until Tuesday, so we get a long weekend break!