Bad experience with Iron Infusion today! (long)

I had or I guess I should say attempted to get my second Infed iron infusion today. I had a test dose last week and was monitored at the hospital and then given the full dose. I had no reactions. Fast forward to this afternoon, I get to the chemo center. The nurse finally gets the IV and then starts the infusion. Within minutes I felt nauseated. As soon as I realized I was going downhill I called for the nurse. Within seconds, my ears were ringing, I had severe nausea, shortness of breathe, was seeing stars, etc. All I remember hearing was the nurse yelling get the doctor. He took one look at me and asked if my chest was so red when I got there. I glanced down and it was more red than any sunburn I ever had. They pumped me full of steriods and then asked if it would be possible to get a ride home so they could give me a full dose of benedryl. I was now breathing ok, but could feel hives all over my back. Once they got that in the hives went away. They pumped me full of fluids and took my vitals every few minutes. Once the initial reaction was under control, I began to shiver uncontrollably. My teeth were chattering so hard, I was afraid I'd break a tooth. He was going to give me demoral, but the nurse asked him to hold off a few minutes and we covered me with about 3 fleece blankets. It took about half an hour to get the shaking under control. So now they are going to appeal to my insurance company again, to approve me Ferrlicit since I had a reaction to the Infed. I know my insurance will deny it. I'm not sure what direction we will go. With my ferritin a 2, we need to do something. So the plan is to call insurance Monday. Insurance will say they have 30 days to make a decision. I'm pretty sure they will deny it again as they consider ferrelcit an experimental drug although it's been used since the late 90's. I'm not sure if there are other types out there to try. I guess it's back to Google for me. In the meantime, they want me to come back next week to try this a little differently. This time they will give me the steriods and benedryl before staring the iron. They will do another test dose to see if they can tolerate it. I'm really scared for this next round. Traci, I know you have your infusion tomorrow. Please make sure they do a test dose before starting full strength. I hope your treatment goes better than mine. I didn't post this to scare you, but had told you I'd keep you posted on my progress.

Oh good lord in heaven - not sure I wanted to read this the morning of my infusion! They are using Dextran on me - so see if your insurance will cover that one. Yes, they are doing a test dose and bless my doctor's sweet heart, he wrote out very detailed instructions for the gal doing the infusion. She does them all the time and was surprised as apparently he's the first doctor to do this. He's just extra cautious I guess with my last week's episode with my heart. So is it normal to do it one week, then go back again the next week and do it again? One time didn't get your levels up enough I guess? Did you feel any better after the first dose? If so, how long did it take you to feel better? I've never had an iron infusion in my life - so have no idea how I'll respond. I'm praying that I do well and I feel much better afterwards. Traci