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| LindaR |
Go to the hospital this morning (fasting) for lab work. They need 3 tubes of blood. Blood does not like to leave my body. I know this.
I tell the lady that there is always difficulty and that she needs to use a butterfly needle instead of the standard needle. She says, "No, it will take too long and I am very experienced at this."
Okaayyyyyyyyyyyy. I tell her that she WILL use a butterfly on her second (and last) attempt. Golly gee, she didn't get any blood on her first try..........she changes the location of the rubberband they tie around your arm....slaps my other arm to make the veins pop up....changes location of rubberband......slaps some more.....the smile has long since disappeared from my lips.....I am giving her a hard stare....I am about to start slapping back......silently grabs and inserts butterfly into the top of my hand (new location) and can only fill a tube and a half. She asks supervisor if that will be enough to do my lab work.......should be. She tells me it should be ok, that she doesn't want me to have to come back. You don't want me to HAVE to come back, either.
I have had this same body for 40 years, 365 days a year. I believe that I know what will and will not happen when I open my mouth.
"Whatever you do, you'd better not drop those tubes." She smiles. I'm not joking.
I am holey. There is hair missing from my arms in every location that she tied the rubberband because it tore the hair out every time she re-tied it.
I am cranky. |
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| Tigerlily |
Poor Linda! I know exactly how you feel--I have to do bloodwork every three months, and there is only one vein on my body that will give it up. ;-) Luckily, the phlebotomist (sp??) in my Dr.'s office listens to me when I tell her which vein to use. Hope you have better luck next time! BTW, what's a butterfly needle? Should I be looking into using one, I wonder? |
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| LindaR |
Butterfly is a super fine needle with a very skinny line attached. The line is what actually goes into the tube. It doesn't hurt as much as regular needles. I find that it will usually get blood from veins that the larger needles make collapse. Hardly leaves a bruise either. |
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| Scarlet |
quote:
LindaR wrote:
Butterfly is a super fine needle with a very skinny line attached. The line is what actually goes into the tube. It doesn't hurt as much as regular needles. I find that it will usually get blood from veins that the larger needles make collapse. Hardly leaves a bruise either.
I have the same problem.I tell them they get on chance and one chance only and if it dosen't work I'll caome back.I developed a Protein S deficency(sp) and have a platlet count of between 900,000 and 1,000,000. so my blood clots very very fast.I get blood work done once a month to monitor it. I had to have surgery and the anastisologist(sp) could not even find my veins. They had to put me under because it was hurting so much. I feel your pain Linda:( |
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| fantayzya |
Oh how I identify...and will definately be asking about this 'butterfly' myself.
For whatever reason my bod doesn't like this experience either and although I warn em when they need to do tests, they never believe me either. My record for number of locations (this is not total attempts as there were multiple attempts in a few locations) is 8 different locations to stick the needle in one visit before finally getting blood from the top of my foot.(and then only one baby vial when they were trying for 3 adult vials) This is now one of my least favorite places to draw from, another being the thumb side of my wrist. YEEEEOOWWWWCHIE!
They have a tough time putting stuff in too though. I opted not to be the hero I was with my oldest when I had my youngest and said sure to some pain relief. Well, one dose went in fine and when that started to wear off they went to put in another. The vein (back of my hand) gave out. The nurse says well, we only got half in that one, so we'll put the other half in the other hand it works better if we spread it around anyway. Excuse me? I was in labor, but not stupid. You are putting this in the circulatory system. It will spread itself around. Needless to say I never got any more pain relief meds.
Lori |
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| Tigerlily |
I had one nurse try to insert an IV in the side of my wrist, and she hit a nerve. I kept trying to tell her to take it out, and she refused, and told me not to be a baby!! Excuse me? I think I know when somethin' ain't right--my whole hand and arm were tingling painfully up to the elbow! My husband looked straight at her and said through gritted teeth, "TAKE IT OUT NOW!!!" She did, too. ;-) I then asked my neighbor, who was an attending physician at the hospital, to insert the IV in the back of my hand where it belonged in the first place. The nerves in my hand were hinky for months afterwards. Grrrrrrrr...Why don't people listen when you try to tell them stuff?? Grrrrrrr..... |
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| Lunarlady |
I have the same problem with small veins. I had to have blood drawn a few days ago and my left arm looks like I'm a junkie!
A doctor told me a few years ago (and I wish I'd tried this earlier this week) that people who are hydrated don't have the problems with veins collapsing or the phlebotomist trying to find a vein to draw blood. I found it to be true that if I drank and drank and drank water a day or so before the routine blood tests, both of us generally had an easier time.
Just an idea. |
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| MidNite |
When I was in the hospital for PIH during my last pregnancy, they had to get "special" people to come do my IV's. I had one in the bend of my arm. That was really not cool. I went through labor with that darn thing. And afterwards, I was trying to feed the baby and keep my arm straight at the same time. Also not cool. I wound up bending it some and it popped through my vein. Yuck. Made a great big knot. I counted how many times I had to be stuck/restuck during my one week visit. It was around 30 times, including IV's (3 different places). And none of them went in smoothly.
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| Denise |
quote:
Tigerlily wrote:
I had one nurse try to insert an IV in the side of my wrist, and she hit a nerve. I kept trying to tell her to take it out, and she refused, and told me not to be a baby!!
Nice nurse - I once went to a dentist like that (ONCE), who decided I was not worthy of enough novacaine so I couldn't feel her pull my wisdom tooth out. I felt EVERYTHING. And I was very loud while she was pulling it out. She told me to be quiet because the person in the next room was scared of dentists!
I never went back.
As far as blood - my veins are hard to get to, I remember the first time a male nurse said that was what he was going to do (a butterfly). I pretty much freaked, I couldn't stand the thought of a needle in my hand. Now it doesn't bother me - though I do need smelling salts nearby for any blood work - I occasionally get dizzy once the needle goes in. I don't know why, but if I make it through the first 15 seconds or so, I am fine.
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| Denise |
I forgot my non-favorite bloodwork visit. I was like 18, and I had this nurse who thought she was Gods gift to women taking my blood. Or not taking it, as the case may be. She started twisting the needle around my arm, and soon I had like 3 or 4 nurses hovered around while twisting the needle. It was really strange. They finally got the nice, older (like 45 years old :)) nurse to get my blood. No problem. And I'd never gotten woozy having my blood drawn before that, it started right afterwards.
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| Scarlet |
quote:
fantayzya wrote:
Oh how I identify...and will definately be asking about this 'butterfly' myself.
For whatever reason my bod doesn't like this experience either and although I warn em when they need to do tests, they never believe me either. My record for number of locations (this is not total attempts as there were multiple attempts in a few locations) is 8 different locations to stick the needle in one visit before finally getting blood from the top of my foot.(and then only one baby vial when they were trying for 3 adult vials) This is now one of my least favorite places to draw from, another being the thumb side of my wrist. YEEEEOOWWWWCHIE!
They have a tough time putting stuff in too though. I opted not to be the hero I was with my oldest when I had my youngest and said sure to some pain relief. Well, one dose went in fine and when that started to wear off they went to put in another. The vein (back of my hand) gave out. The nurse says well, we only got half in that one, so we'll put the other half in the other hand it works better if we spread it around anyway. Excuse me? I was in labor, but not stupid. You are putting this in the circulatory system. It will spread itself around. Needless to say I never got any more pain relief meds.
Lori
My record number of sticks for blood work was 18... one stick for each vial they needed because my blood clots so fast they had to keep finding other spots.....I was not a happy camper and actually passed out....
The record number for IV sticks is 9 that was when I was in labor and they popped about 6 veins so all the pictures of me holding my son have all my bruises in them :( |
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| Dab |
Definitely not fun at all. I have rolling veins and something else that I can't remember what they say (I try not to listen to them LOL). Most do very well on the second or third try. This last time at the OB/GYN's office (it's upstairs from the birthing center, I was not pregnant, just that's where my GYN was), I had to have a lot of vials taken for a bunch of different hormone testing. 4 kids and tons of blood tests and I've always done fine except this one lady here. She starts by going on and on about how many vials I need, then she can't find the vein, that thing was getting awfully tight around my arm by this time, then she tries something else (probably that butterfly needle), she's still talking to this other woman about what she's trying to do and I could feel my face getting warm, not feeling real well and she finally finds my vein. She's telling me not to pass out until after she gets all the vials now that she's found the vein LOL (this was the older nurse since the first one couldn't do it after 10 minutes). They had to carry me to the recovery room where the new mothers go after delivery : )
I had to lay there for 15 minutes, she said my eyes were starting to roll. Tons of blood tests over the years with people not finding my vein and nothing but there was just something about this woman that made me faint. |
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| Tink *~*~* |
This stuff started happening to me during my 7th and final month of chemo. I had only one good arm, cause they took the lymph nodes out from the other one and the rule is "no blood pressure, no needles" on that side. By the 7th month of chemo, that arm was just plain tired of being stuck, and they were soaking my arm in a tub of water to make the veins come up and finally an old, old nurse's aid came in and gently and expertly found a good vein between my pinky and ring finger. I was SOOOOOO glad it was my last round of chemo, and 10 years later, my veins are still quite shy! |
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