43. 9/5/2013 - A blood draw gone wrong.

I forgot to write earlier that clinic arranged for a visiting nurse association (VNA) to come to our house every Thursday to draw Hattie's blood. The idea was this would save us a trip into the city each week and we'd be able to have the same nurse visit each time. We had a big introductory meeting with our regular nurse a few weeks before this draw. That was the last time we saw that nurse and each week seemed to bring a new face.

Hattie's awesome nanny, Leslie Hilton was watching her this day. I stuck around in the morning to help show her the ropes with the VNA and then I hoped to go into work in the afternoon. Well, the VNA showed up and it was a mess from the start. She wasn't sure why she was supposed to be there and revealed she had no experience with pediatric patients.

The VNA attempted to access Hattie a couple of times but wasn't able to get a blood return and Hattie ended up shrieking in pain and wouldn't let her come near again. I somehow kept my cool and graciously told the nurse to leave and called the Jimmy Fund Clinic. They told us to come in so Leslie, Hattie and I shlept into Boston.

The upside to the whole ordeal was a run-in with Wally, the Red Sox mascot. Leslie was such a huge part of our support system throughout this process so it was also nice for her to see how well Hattie was treated at clinic. We were always impressed with all the nurses at Dana-Farber and Children's. Unfortunately, this would be the first of many poor VNA experiences.