Three and a Half Years On and Feeling Tired Part Deux – 6 Weeks Later
This is my third attempt at writing a blog all about my infusion of Cosmofer (IV Iron Infusion). I’ve been extremely busy attending appointments over the past week and at the previous attacks at the blogosphere I have fallen asleep at the keyboard. So I apologise for this gross neglect of duty and promise to try and not let it happen again.
Well, I was looking forward to receiving my iron infusion on Tuesday, 26th November 2013, owing to the extreme tiredness I’ve been experiencing recently.
I arrived for my appointed time of 10:30 am and was asked to sit in the appropriately named ‘waiting room’, which I did for 20 minutes after which time I was transferred to the ward where my treatment was to take place. I went through a lengthy booking procedure that adorned me with all kinds of warning labels, plus one which reminded me who I was just in case I wandered off. The Cosmofer (as opposed to Venofer) was prepared while the very fine infusion needle was inserted into a small vein on my right forearm. I was then connected to the 500ml bag via the infusion pump, by which time it was 11:45 am.
I was told that as I had received Cosmofer before I wouldn’t need to go through the testing process of stopping for an hour after the initial hour of treatment while they performed a second check of my blood pressure, wait an hour, checked it again and if all ok restart the treatment. Oh no, none of that nonsense. In addition to this, I was told that the whole treatment should only take between two and a quarter and two and a half hours. Great, I’ll be home by four.
Three O’clock came and went, and the bag still had a third of the way to go. So, while I was sitting there twiddling my thumbs, one of the pharmaceutical staff happened by and asked me if I had been told the reason for the pump being slowed down. I said that I hadn’t, and she went on to explain that due to some unfortunate incidents in France, a European directive was sent out to revise the procedure for delivering Cosmofer IV Iron. PDF documents for both Cosmofer and Venofer can be downloaded from the web as produced by the NHS. Although they do not mention these incidents per sae, they do state quite clearly that:
“CosmoFer® must be added to 500mLs of Sodium Chloride 0.9% IV infusion and infused over 4 to 6 hours. The patient should be observed for 1 hour after completion of the infusion.”
So I still had a while to go………
Several thumb twiddles later, at 4:20, the infusion was complete, at which time my blood pressure was taken once more. I had my BP checked at the start (127/78), After 1 Hour (110/72), after 2 Hours (96/58) and at the end (120/75). The pump was switched off and the bag and line disconnected.
Then I sat for an hour, then an hour and a quarter, and someone finally removed the needle from my arm.
At 5:50 pm, I finally left the car park, having paid my £6.00 parking fee, and walked to the other side of the car park.
After finding somewhere to fill up with fuel, I got home at 6:45 pm.
Happy Days Once More!
