3rd Infusion

It was time again to make the journey to “PGH”:http://www.pgh.gov.ph/v2/ for my bi-monthly infusion. It’s funny how time flies by so fast. It seems like it was only yesterday that I was approved for the Expanded Access Program and now I’m writing about my third infusion.

We checked in on the evening of Jan 16th. As each infusion goes, it seems that things are going smoother, albeit there are still problems with room reservations, etc.. but generally things are getting better. The bad part though, We didn’t get the room we wanted. We got one of the older rooms. The paint was a depressing shade of gray. A stark contrast to the happy orange we got during the previous stay. But that’s about the only bad part. Everything else went well.

The third infusion went smoothly. Uneventful. Although they had to extract blood again from me for some tests, this time it was a one shot deal. They only had to stick a needle in me once. It was the same vein that they used to extract blood and for the actual infusion.

We had to proceed a bit slower this time due to the episode from the previous infusion. But unlike my second infusion, everything went smooth. Apart from the intial blood pressure of around 130/90, the rest of the time my blood pressure was hovering somewhere between 110/70 to 120/80. Quite good. I think the initial high was caused by the needle. I must say I’m scared when it comes to needles.

I won’t elaborate on the rest of hours that passed while the infusion was taking place. Suffice to say that much of the noise only came from the chatter between myself, the doctors and my parents.

Picture During My 3rd Infusion

During the infusion I wore the prototype of the “Fight Pompe” t-shirt derived from “May Ann’s”:http://frecklefaced29.deviantart.com/ illustration. I just printed it our on a t-shirt transfer paper on my inkjet just to see how it’d look on a shirt. The one I made was a bit too small and I need to adjust the design…. As you can see from the picture…

Funny thing though.. After the infusion the lead doctor told me that if after four hours my vitals were stable and I was feeling good then I could go home. 30 mins before I could go home, the resident I had a crush on walked in… This was the first time I saw her during my whole stay this time… She said that she’d take my vitals one more time before I go home. I absolutely, positively had to hold back everything and concentrate on not laughing or whatever just to keep my vitals stable. After she was done taking my vitals and left the room. Everyone inside was laughing, including me because they knew I had a crush on her. My pulse rate went up by almost 40 beats per minute. My mom was teasing that I might not be able to go home today because my pulse rate went up.. Hahaha.

Suffice to say that the spike in my pulse rate was really due to that and nothing else. A few minutes after the laughing it was back to normal. I was able to go home on time.

Oh well.. What will the fourth infusion bring? I just hope it’s as uneventful as this one.

2 Replies to “3rd Infusion”

  1. Hi Juan,

    I really feel my age as this is the first BLOG i’ve gone on to read! I find it very motivating and helps me as we prepare to market Myozyme. Juan, can you let me know how we can purchase copies of “Hope for Pompe”? I think this is a wonderful and moving film and would like to share it with my colleagues here at Genzyme.

    Thanks,

    Mark Gibson

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