I hate getting stuck....(warning for weak stomachs)

with these dang IV needles every two weeks (and more with random blood draws). I have the smallest little veins and they are so finicky and like to roll and run away from the needle once it has penitrated the top layer of skin. I do not have the typical normal elbow area veins where most people would have and IV or blood taken from, those are almost no existant. I had an IV for 4 solid days during the induction of the IVIg 2 back in early June that was on hte mid right forearm and it is still bruised and the vein is still weakened. They tried to give me the IV there uesterday and it seemed to be working fine for about 30 seconds, then it blew the vein about 3 inches from the insertion point. My nurse, Sharla, was just shocked at where it blew as she had never seen that happen before. It makes a nasty bubble under the skin, then it bruises nicely. I bruise so easily anyway thes type of things do not help! After that happened, she moved up to my upper arm close to the armpit and found a pretty good vein there and we got the infusion going. Allwas fine through the 3.25 hours - I even slept about 2 hours of the time curled up in the chair under a blanket listening to Pandora. Once it was time to pack up to go, I guess I pulled the IV some and caused an infiltration (where it pulls out of its place) and the last 10cc's fed into my arm under the skin instead of in the vein. This med is actually designed as a subqutaneous treatment so that is not a problem - EXCEPT it hurt, itched, burned and caused a huge knot on my arm when the meds were sitting. It looked like I had an extra muscle on my inner arm -HA! I came home and put the heating pad on it for a couple hours and the area went away, so all is good now. I do have a bit of a bruise in the area and it is a bit tender, but what do you do?

So when all of this was going on, the nurses were asking me why I did not just get a port (portacath) put in for these infusion. I spoke to the doctor about that in the beginning and she did not persue it. I have such issues with my veins I think it is something I will be looking into further. i know my brother hated his, when he got it for cancer treatment. I also think that he was dealing with alot of pain associated with his cancer ravaging through his body at the time. I am tired of being dug on and bruised for weeks at a time and sore from the needles. I have to do this treatment every two weeks now and give blood often for testing. This would make all of that so much easier!! I think I will let the nurses look into it.

This coming week I will be having the first MRI since I started the IVIg. I hope and pray there will be some improvements on the lesions showing that this treatments is doing something for the MS as well as the immunity issues I have been having.