Dillon's blood draw

I have been needing to get a bunch of blood drawn on Dillon for a while because of the diet he is on, but I had problems with the insurance letting me take him to CHOP instead of Quest. Truthfully I didn't stay on top of it because I dread taking him for blood work since he is such a hard stick.

We finally got everything together and went Wednesday to the CHOP in King of Prussia. We gave him about 70ml (a little more than 2 ounces) extra water before we went - hoping to pump up the veins. The ladies there were great, but they could only get one vein and out of that vein they got literally 4 drops of blood and it clotted before they left the room! Dillon's veins have a lot of scar tissue they said which makes them even hard to get, and his blood seems to flow so slowly that it won't fill the syringes.

So - Thursday we took him to CHOP main campus. But this time in the 16 hours leading up to it I gave him a little more than 600ml extra water! This is 20 ounces and is almost doubling his normal daily fluid intake! I also took a bath basin with us and sat his feet and one hand in the basins with very warm water for about an hour. Yes, Robin thought I was crazy, and probably every other person there thought the same. However, you could really see his veins better! When all the paperwork was squared away we went back for the blood. The first lady stuck his hand and got about 3ml from it. While she was working on his hand another lady came over and stuck his foot and was getting it to flow great. They ended up getting all the rest of the blood they needed (enough for about 9 vials) from his foot.

Dillon did not like the experience! As soon as they put the heating packs on his hands on Thursday he started fighting and getting mad. I am pretty sure he remembered what they did the day before and knew what was coming. But my little man was brave and did great! I started to feel a little funny after it was almost done and took some deep breaths to calm down. I was worried they weren't going to get it and have to keep sticking him!

Then we walked to find Daddy, who is working at a building a couple blocks away from CHOP, and had lunch with him. It was the first time Robin and I had ever ate from a street vendor in Philly. I thought it was pretty good! It sure helps a long day at CHOP to get to have lunch with my sweet husby!

Then I had to go around CHOP and schedule a few things and try to get the two departments talking that need to coordinate the surgery for Dillon in August. Ortho is looking at Aug 6, hopefully a urology doctor will be able to participate that day as well.

Then it was a long ride home. It took a little over 1.5 hours even though we left at 3:20. Needless to say, I was exhausted yesterday evening, but thankful the blood work is done!