Iron Infusion #1

Today was my first iron infusion to get my ferritin levels back up to normal. I drove about 11 minutes to my hematologist's infusion center - I've been here before when I was here for an IVIG infusion. Lots of little old ladies undergoing chemotherapy - some are bitter, some are dealing with it ok. It's a mixed bag. It's just sad for me to see them in their lazyboy chairs with those fluorescent yellow bags dripping into their arms.

There's a male nurse (we'll call him V-Man) who places our IVs and mixes our individual bags of drugs. My bag was about 250ml of dark brown stuff and took about 2 hours to infuse. Very unappetizing. V-Man takes it all in stride and is really quite nice to have around. He said that they'll do a daily infusion each day from now until Saturday and that my doctor's protocol is aggressive and that they'll test my blood on Monday to see where I'm at. I might need a few more bags, but hopefully not. Each bag contains 200mg of iron (venofer brand), so 1g total at the end of the sequence.

After about 4 weeks, all of the Fe+ should combine with apoferritin to form ferritin and this will in turn help my body to create more hemoglobin as it's needed. My hematocrit is at 31, probably lower since I've been bleeding constantly for the last month while I've been on the BCPs (continual "break through bleeding" is what it is). I wish I knew more about the process but I'm reading up on it. I'm looking forward to increased energy levels and, from what I read, I should be seeing my hair grow back in due time. There are some negative side effects: bone cramping, headaches, etc, but they are short lived. The long term effects seem to totally outweigh the negative effects. Fingers crossed. More tomorrow