I have bad veins for drawing blood - they are small, and they hide, and at least half the time the phlebotomist ends up taking blood from my hand instead of my arm.
Every time, they tell me to drink more water. But it’s never enough. I typically go to get blood drawn first thing in the morning, so I am just out of bed and normally dehydrated from not drinking anything for 8 hours. I can drink after I get up, but it doesn’t seem to do any good, maybe because it takes time to work its way into the bloodstream.
So a few questions:
Does drinking water actually help my veins stick out better?
How long does it take for the water I drink to improve my veins’ accessibility?
How much water should I drink? (I am male, 6’1", 270 pounds). I drank a quart today but the phleb said “drink more” which seems ridiculous to me.
A quart is generally insufficient for most of us. But the best way to tell is to look at the color of your urine - aim for lemonade or lighter. You will often see advice to drink when thirsty, but be aware that a lot of us don’t have a very well functioning thirst mechanism. So yes, drink when you’re thirsty, but you may also need to drink when you’re not thirsty.
You should start drinking extra - or at least adequate - water the day before your blood draw if your goal is to increase blood volume and “plump up your veins”. And yes, it helps.
No answers here, just a fellow sufferer. Only one of my arms can be used, and the nicest vein in that is all scarred. They resort to my hand or just above my wrist, and often those don’t want to cooperate.
That’s what they tell me, too. After fasting I usually “flashed.” (Trace amount at the bottom of the vial, then no more.) Right now my sweet spots are forearms, just below the elbow to the outer side. (Other places are scarred from overuse.) But I’ve had it drawn from my shoulder and my feet. I think they should train phlebotomists on spiders. (Get it? Spider veins?) Because there are a lot of us out there; small collapsing rolling zig zag veins.
The trick is to find a phlebotomist who “gets” you and then follow them everywhere. Ask them their name and what hours they work. If they relocate, you do, too. When you need a blood draw plan your schedule around theirs. Mine (right now I have two favs) tell me to drink water even if I’m fasting. Otherwise it’s 2-3 tries each—no fun for any of us.
I recently spent five days in the hospital with pancreatitis, and on day 4 they had to change my IV from the right arm to the left arm because the first one was leaking.
The nurse assigned to my room had to call the floor nurse. The floor nurse had to call in some sort of specialist. I was apparently having some sort of histamine reaction where the vein would just kind of roll away from the incoming needle. Eventually they gave up on the arm and jabbed me in the shoulder.
I was definitely dehydrated by then, since I was eating nothing and drinking very little.
The day 1 jab wasn’t much fun either, but I was in too much pain to care about the ER nurse digging that needle around inside my arm like he was fracking for oil.
You might try drinking plenty the day before and maybe even waking up a couple times in the night to drink some water.
Yeah, “fasting” for blood draws means no food. Water should be consumed. Perhaps they should be clearer about this in their instructions, if people think they shouldn’t be drinking water for a fasting blood draw.
One hears about the veins bulging out when a person is boiling mad. So before you go to get your blood sucked, try reading the latest pages of the Stupid Republican Idea of the Day thread.
Do you mean all you had to drink was a quart of water all day, and that was an excessive amount for you? I’ve heard of people with low thirst drive, but man, what do you normally drink a day? Or was it that it was water and you usually drink something else?
When I’ve talked to friends about it, I usually tell them to drink a quart before bed. On top of what they’re supposed to be intaking during the day. It takes time for the body to re-hydrate properly.
If they had to “fish” for my veins, I’d probably not be very happy about blood draws, either. I mean, it’s not something I look forward to, but having “great pipes” certainly makes things go more smoothly.
If I did that I would be up to pee 5 times throughout the night and very cranky in the morning. How do people drink water right before bed and still sleep?!
I’m a regular donor and attempt to drink more water than usual the day before and the day of a blood draw. They usually don’t have an issue finding my veins, but if I’m dehydrated it takes soooo much longer to fill the bag. I hate the whole process, so anything I can do to make it faster, I’ll try.
I can sympathize, even though I have good veins. I get blood work done every three months, and have for…oh…a decade or so. It was only about five years ago that someone mentioned how much hydration matters. I was doing it first thing in the morning, too, since it was a fasting test.
After the nurse suggested that I drink more water, I discussed it briefly with my sister, who just happens to be a certified phlebotomist, who completely agreed. It’s a shame it never came up in conversation before.
I used to faint if I got up too soon after a blood draw. Some combination of repetition, better hydration, and drinking some OJ afterwards seem to have solved that. Yay.
The thing about water right before bed is that, while yes, you do have to get up to pee, while you sleep your body makes a hormone to make less urine than during the day, so late at night water actually stays in your system longer. I’m not honestly sure it matters much outside a hospital setting where the blood draw or donation happens a few hours after you wake up - an hour or so awake and the hormone wears off and you’ll pee out anything your body considers “excess” anyhow. But technically, nighttime hydration is slightly more effective.
But if it disturbs your sleep to the point it makes you cranky, top up with an extra quart before dinner instead.
My veins are small and tend to roll around so much I tell the phlebotomist that they’re coated with Teflon. I don’t think these youngsters know what Teflon is anymore because I never get a laugh.
It’s a good thing I’m not squeamish or scared of needles. I know my veins are difficult so I let them poke around as much as needed. It’s always amazing when one gets it on the first try. I also tell them to use my hand whenever possible too.
My guy at the Oncologest uses a premie iv needle. Tell them to use that and they get 3 trys. Awful veins,and can only use my right arm…something to do with lymph nodes being removed along with the breast. They usually hand me a bottle of water in the Lab…
I suppose anything is possible, but I don’t know of any. Fasting blood draws are usually for blood glucose and blood lipids, which come from foods and can be influenced by eating food or drinking liquids other than water.
NPO before surgery or potential requires total fasting from food and water, except sometimes a small sip for taking medications. That’s generally not because the food interferes with the surgery, but because if there’s anything in your stomach - even water - you may vomit from the side effects of the anesthetic and you could potentially breathe that vomit in and choke on it or get pneumonia. They’re not being jerks, it really is very important that you not eat or drink before surgery or when you’re under Observation and you might need surgery.
I still pump out well but as I age, I have become a harder & harder ‘stick.’
I always praise a good stick artist.
Needles don’t bother me but if I ever see a gun again I will fight to the end to keep that form of shot giving to be used on me again. Only one guy in the military knew the correct way to use them. All others should have been shot with a gun that used bullets. :::::: Grump :::::
I appreciate the different viewpoints. To clarify: the quart of water was during the hour between getting up and getting the blood draw.
I think stocking up the evening before is what I need to do, then. I don’t know why the phlebotomist couldn’t share that bit more of information, instead of curtly telling me to “drink more” without any guidance. Thanks, WhyNot, for the perspective on drinking the evening before and needing to get up to pee during the night, that was a concern of mine too.
The worst I ever had was the last time I had a colonoscopy, because you can’t have water for the last four hours. Neither nurse could find a vein anywhere, finally the doctor had to do it in my ankle, and it took three or four more tries. This does give me a strategy for the next time (happily, three years away) to drink a lot the night before.