IVIg is a-go

Well, it was a hurry-up and wait morning. But we finally moved to our new room and they started the IVIg a little while ago. He is on Benadryl and Tylenol prophylactically. His heart, blood pressure and oxygen are being monitored. So few babies his age have received this treatment so, while they don't anticipate any reaction they are being super careful. Gwen (who also received IVIg) and Arthur, are I suppose, pioneers in a way for treatment of severe alloimmune neutropenia.

We thought it was going to take six or so hours for them to pump this into his body. Now we are told only about two hours. Then over the next few days we will see if the IVIg affected his neutrophil count. In the meantime, he will still continue to get daily G-CSf (the neutrophil stimulant) shots. 

Praying and hoping with every bone in our body that this IVIg does the trick (it essentially floods his systems with antibodies -it's a pooled blood product from 2,000 donors...and beyond that it is really hard to explain how it works, in fact, it is not even fully understood).

GOOD NEWS of the day: His neutrophil levels today were at 270 and his infection looks a tiny bit better from yesterday. This is encouraging news. It could be down again tomorrow, so really what we need to see is a trend upward and a steady hold at a respectable number. It's not a hugely significant difference between 0 and 200, but it's a good number just the same. This shows us the G-CSF is doing something. I was told it is not unusual in a baby for it to take some to for the stimulant to "work" because their bone marrow, being an infant, can be slow to do its stuff.

I asked if we should wait and see about doing the IVig now that finally something is happening. They explained it is better to do this and hope for really good results so he can get off the iv antibiotics sooner rather than later.

He still has his iv in his hand even though he has the PICC in the jugular. This is because for today, they need the PICC for the IVig only. The hand iv then can be used for his antibiotics. So, he is a full of "outlets" if you will. Hopefully, by the end of the day, his little hand will be free again.

 
And of unimportant things, this new room is mostly the same as the one we were in, except we don't have a couch. We will sorely miss our couch - we are in an all a brand new unit that opened the day Arthur was born of all things - and the rooms are actually quite lovely for a hospital. However, floor eight, where we were has the couches. Floor seven, where we are now, is still waiting on them to come in. All I have now is a recliner chair...can't imagine how I'll sleep in that and it's too bad because I was able to lay on the couch and put Arthur in his little bed I brought from home and sleep side by side. And was so comfy during the day to sit on and to nurse... Oh well. Just another reason...I wanna go HOME!

update by Myers: by the time we posted this the IVIg was finished (only took 3 hours rather than 6).  Our friend Christian is visiting.  His hand IV has been removed.