Pharmacokinetics

Well, we survived our big day of testing. There really wasn't a lot to the process, you just had to stick around so you could get the blood draws timed just right. We started our day much earlier than either of us was used to. I got up at 3:30AM to make her formula and pack her cooler, load the car and get Mia ready. She was NOT happy about waking up. She kept saying "NO! I wanna stay in my bed!" Poor kid, comes from a long line of people who will never be accused of being morning people!

We were on the road by 5:00am, leaving much earlier than at the time I thought necessary since it had snowed the night before. I thought we'd beat the rush hour traffic, but I was very very wrong! If anyone offers me a choice in the future, I'm sticking with the late morning appointments! We needed to check in at 730 and we made it into the parking lot at 7:27, proving my instinct right once more. Between rush hour and the car accident that had the right two lanes on I-25 closed inside Denver proper, we wouldn't have had a chance if we left any later than we did. Phew!

We had our consultation with Dr. Spahn, a delightful man who LOVES numbers! He came in with a piece of paper that had a graph on it, much to my relief. I was afraid he was going to try to explain everything with no examples or pictures. I retain information MUCH better if I can see it happen in front of me. He explained why we do the blood draws before she is given the steroid (to get the base level of cortisol and eosinophils) and why we take the second so far apart (there are very specific levels they are expecting and if they are off, something is not right, both values are supposed to drastically decrease.). If this test shows abnormalities, we could be looking at either an adrenal or a metabolism problem. If it is normal, we still need to do another study. Either way we're going back sometime in the near future. He said that they only do about 160 of these studies per year, which would explain his enthusiasm for explaining the process as thoroughly as possible. Most of the subjects are adults, a few are kids and even fewer of the overall patients' primary complaint is GI disease. It's typically done on steroid resistant asthma patients, but could be useful in other areas, such as Mia's.

The worst part of the day was the first blood draw. They couldn't get a vein to cooperate anywhere and it didn't help that Mia was in full on defense mode. I have never heard her scream they way she did yesterday morning, it was very rhythmic and her eyes had this looked that said, "I've checked out, left you with this screaming version, see you later!" She wasn't hearing anything and nothing made her feel better until the nurses left the room. True to her nature, she did forgive them quickly once they showered her with stickers. We didn't use any kind of numbing cream the first time because we know what Emla does to her skin. They came in for round 2 with something called Lmx, a cream that would do the same thing but was somehow different. I said we'd try, just for the sake of trying after the earlier circus. Hallelujah it worked! She didn't have a bad reaction, just some redness but more importantly it made the chore of drawing her blood easier. Nobody likes to take blood from this kid, because her little veins are not cooperative! The last draw of the day was the best, I hydrated her like crazy an hour before hand and that helped. The nurse from the morning was feeling guilty so she took Mia back to the "big" prize closet and let mia choose something from a basket of goodies. We now have a strawberry shortcake jump rope. Don't ask, it's what she wanted!

The drive home was much quicker than the drive in. We left the hospital at 6pm on the dot, so most of the "Oh I have to be the traffic" traffic was gone. I don't particularly like driving in the dark but I found a caravan of sane people and we just mosied into Springs, getting us home a little before 7:30.

We should get a call in about a week regarding the results, I'm just hoping that everything happened the way it was supposed to happen, because I really do not want to do this all over again!