FIRST find the vein, THEN stick me for drawing blood!

The BBQ Pit
1

OK, apparently my veins are very shy, retiring types. However, I always warn the nurse/lab tech that s/he’s gonna need to pull the tourniquet TIGHT, and get a good idea of where the vein is before sticking me.

Yesterday, the nurse didn’t believe me. She wouldn’t pull the tourniquet tight enough, and then she aimed for where she THOUGHT a vein MIGHT be. Then she slid the needle around inside my arm several times, trying to hit the vein. Repeat. Repeat on other arm. Go back to first arm. Finally, she used a butterfly needle, after she’d pulled the tourniquet tighter. My arms are sore bruised messes today. I have just now climbed down off the ceiling.

I’ll grant that I’m not an easy stick. But I don’t want her drawing MY blood ever again.

2

Ugh, sounds like a nightmare.

I hate needles, and this is coming from a person who just finished a sleeve a few months back.

3

Been there, did that. Now, I insist on it. I tell 'em up front “I’m needlephobic and a hard draw” if they tell me it doesn’t matter or some such, I demand some one else. Tell 'em they get one shot at you. you don’t need to put up with that shit. at all. ever.

(also I tend to go to a in-hospital lab vs. elsewhere, where the person is more likely to have done mostly blood draws and on special folks, like the elderly, children, other needlephobic hard draws.)

4

I had a nurse like that when I was fourteen. It took ten years to get me back into a doctor’s office. As it turns out, needles aren’t really a big deal as far as I’m concerned. As I came out of the office, I thought to myself, “Hey, now I can get that tatoo I always wanted! And give blood!” Trust me to get the tatoo first. :smack:

5

My daughter is pregnant. She went to the doctor for a checkup today. They attempted to draw blood…

took them four tries. Now she looks like a junkie.

She feels your pain.

6

I have very prominent non-runaway veins in the back of my hand. I have deep (very close to the bone) run-away from the needle veins in the crook of my elbow. Which do you think the vampires always insist on taking the blood from?

Why, oh why don’t they listen? What is it about them that they hate me so? Why is it that they absolutely refuse to take the blood from the back of my hand until I’m a bruised mess? They tell me it will hurt. I tell them it will not hurt as much as it will when they chase the stupid vein in my arm with a needle under my skin. Stupid vampires.

7

I’ve told nurses that many, many, many , MANY times. Do they ever listen? Fuck no. Do I have to draw you a picture? I am nee-dle-pho-bic. Yes, I know I’ve been stuck with needles several times a month since I was eleven. Phobia means that familiarity breeds not contempt, it breeds more fear. I’ve told them again and again that I cannot see the needle before, during, or after the sticking-it-in-me process or I will literally claw the walls down trying to get away from it. Back the fuck away from me with that steel, nurses, the Spaz precedes the Cat for a damn good reason.

Phlebotomists, on the other hadn, are a completely different story. Phlebotomists are cool. They also know how to hide the needles and stick you so you don’t feel it.

Gee, Spaz, did we hit a nerve? Guess so.

8

When dehydrated, it’s taken as many as 6 different sticks to get the needle in me. By 3 different nurses. Ugghh.

9

I also feel your pain. Not only are my veins the shy, retiring type but they are also for some odd reason, about 3 times smaller than the average gals, making it damn near impossible to get a blood draw on me.

Also, thanks to my mom and a pediatrician in my early childhood, I am terrified of needles and become hysterical when somebody approaches me with one, even if I know they’re going to use a butterfly needle.

Oy. It’s alright. You are not alone.
MetalMaven

10

I look like a freaking roadmap my veins are so close to the surface and I’m an easy easy draw and yet I’ve had some completely incompetant people try and draw blood!

If it takes you three sticks to get blood from me you are in the wrong field.

My favorite was the one who went to switch tubes and jammed the needle into my arm so far it hit bone :frowning:

I’m pregnant too and with kidney issues they take blood every two weeks. Yay me :slight_smile:

11

I’ve been told by a nurse that veins in the hand are also harder to get blood from because they have more valves in them. If the needle hits just at or on the wrong side of the valve, they won’t get enough blood. This is also the case, I’ve been told, for I.V. insertions. No, I’m not a medical person; if I’m incorrect, well, then I’ve been lied to.

12

Well I wish every blood draw person I ever got was like the nurse at my OB’s office. I am pregnant myself and had my first prenatal blood draw about a week ago. The nurse ended up taking three vials (according to my DH) and I barely noticed how long it took. She talked to me and tried to keep me from hyperventilating, while DH held my hand and stroked my forehead.:slight_smile:
MetalMaven

13

Actually, it turns out that the doctor DID need the results of these tests today…turns out that the antibiotics I was taking were shutting down my kidneys, so she’s switched me to yet another antibiotic. The COPAY on this new antibiotic is $450 or so. Not four dollars and fifty cents. About four hundred and fifty dollars. US dollars, for those who need the footnotes. I mean, that’s cheaper than new kidneys or a prosthetic arm (my other choices), but I think that they need to offer a good stiff drink before presenting the bill. My husband very nearly had a stroke.

14

I have TERRIBLE veins. It usually takes three or four different nurses and doctors, five or six tries each. I become like a playing field as they compete with each other to see who will achieve the goal. TWICE I’ve had doctors call med students over to practice on me, as an example of a worst-case scenario. When I was in the hospital for almost week with THE FIST OF GOD REACHING INTO MY CHEST AND SEIZING MY SOLAR PLEXUS AND TWISTING–I mean, with gallstones–they had to put it in my foot. Then they had to leave it there, couldn’t move it to a fresh site, because they’d never get it in again.

15

Ouch Lynn, I can relate. I will not allow my blood to be drawn from any where but the back of my hand or my wrist. And if they dare give me any crap about it I leave. If the doc must have the test results that day then I go back to him and let him know what happened in the lab so he can deal with them himself.

I hate lab techs who don’t listen, we are , I personally have lived in this body for 45 years and I know what works best for me.

Please take care of yourself.

16

I enjoy professional relations with a lot of the Doctor’s in the community. Usually this is all upside for me medically. I know who the good Doctors are and am able to get family and friends a standard of care that is generally unavailable to most.

Unfortunately, the payback for this proved to be a bitch at my last checkup.

For the standard blood test, they asked me if I would let the new nurse practice on me. I have great big old monster veins right at the surface, the kind you can park a Buick in.

Apparently this poor girl had screwed up like three times that day and had yet to successfully take blood. I was told to be nice and give her a great big confidence boost with my casual demeanor and big veins. I really wanted more business from these people and I have this image of myself as a nice guy, so I agreed.

The girl comes in and she’s very pretty and very young, and she is clearly nervous as hell.

As she swabs me and preps and talks, I can’t help but notice that her voice is cracking and her hands are shaking horribly. I start to get somewhat nervous. Now, I was supposed to play a tennis match in two days, and suddenly I’m wondering if I’m going to have the use of my arm.

“Excuse me,” I ask as nicely as I can. “Do you think we can use the left arm?”

She stares at me for a second. She wants to be helpful, but in this instance I can read her mind from the look on her face. She is thinking “Hmmm, I’ve never done this from the left side. I wonder if I can.”

Shaky hands and all, she moves over to the other side, and I’m thinking this is going to be really bad, but look on the bright side, after their new nurse maims me they’ll have to give me all their business, right?

She’s clearly not comfortable with her angle, but I see her gearing up for the old college try. She really does look like she’s about to cry.

Truth is, I’m feeling pretty scared. I decide not to look, and as soon as I feel the needle going in… I let out this involuntary high-pitched fart.

The nervousness and the fart makes me start giggling under my breath. I can’t help it. I look up and she’s got this big smile on her face that she’s trying to suppress, and I can tell she’s about to bust out laughing as well.

She finishes up, perfectly, first try, and she tell me I’m all done.

The whole time, were both smiling and I’m trying desperately to come up with a great one-liner which will be appropriate to the situation. Right as she’s leaving it comes to me.

“Excuse me, Miss. I was wondering if I might offer some constructive criticism,” I say in my straightest voice, as if I was about to complain.

“Yes?” she says, clearly crestfallen. She thought she’d done well.

“Next time you stick somebody, try not to let any air out, ok?”

And she gave me the most beautiful smile. That’s the first time I ever made somebody’s day with a fart.

17

Funny, this happened to me just yesterday and I’ve got a nasty bruise from it. I’m not remotely needlephobic and started to giggle as he moved the needle in a near 360 degree arc around the insertion point. After about 6 readustments he got really nervous, left the needle drawing intramuscularly, and tried to pass it off as normal. I said “We’ll probably be here all day unless you continue to wildcat with that syringe.” Harm and foul but no harm, no foul.

18

Boy with a little creative snipping we could turn this into a Penthouse Forum letter.

19

Thank you, really. It never occured to me that being dehydrated made it worse.

My veins are very visible, fairly easy to stick (for a phlebotomist, if not a nurse), but it takes SO long for me.

Now I know to stay hydrated and insist on giving the urine sample first.

20

That really sucks that that happened to you, Lynn! :frowning:

I use to be a phlebotomist.

Most of the time (not always) these people feel like this is a mindless job, and they are only there until they finish school. They have people, day in and day out complaining that the wait is too long, or they need to get to work, or that they are the hardest person in the world to stick, and you only have one chance.

The lead phleb I use to work with, Lanecia, use to get sooo annoyed with this. She was usually the one who took your info at the computer, so she would get bitched at first.
Usually I would be the one drawing. Lanecia and I were the ones that would take all the babies and children that came in, because we were the only ones who had a track of never missing a single person. If I didn’t draw my own blood, I would only let her do it. Our PSC had 5 phlebs. Usually one in the front, one or two drawing, and two or three in the back, processing the specimins.

Now, no matter where you work, you always seem have one, that should never go near a person with a needle. We had one of them. Her name was Jane. lol She should not have had a needle.
Anyway, whenever a person would come in, being demanding and mean, Lanecia would always, all of a sudden, have to go to the bathroom. I new what this meant. It meant that I would have to sit at the computer and do patient info. She would proceed to tell Jane to take the next patient to draw. :frowning: This means that you are at least going to get stuck 2 times, unless you leave after the first stick, or unless Jane was having a good day. Boy, this girl was something else. There were even complaints about her. It’s funny though, because people take all this time to write these long complaints, and all that happens is that Kathy would call Jane and say, “do better, Jane, I don’t want these letters”

Most of the time, the phlebs are good. If they couldn’t feel a vein, they wouldn’t even try, they would just come get me.
The thing I didn’t like was people getting all nervous because I liked to feel around for a minute, and I always looked in both arms. I liked to get the best possible vein.
I had one lady say that she didn’t feel comfortable with me doing it, because I was looking in both arms. She wanted someone else to do it. I asked her if she was sure, and she was. Guess who ended up doing it? Miss Jane. She was the other drawer that day. That lady got stuck 2 times by Jane and once by Kim, before I came back in to actually get some blood. That lady was all mad, and left in a huff, after I got it in one stick.

See, the thing is, Lanecia assigned who was doing what, and that was pretty much the way it stayed. Most of the time, she would keep Jane in the back, but she couldn’t always.

If someone demands that they don’t want me to do it because I take and extra 30 secs to look, I don’t argue.
I have worked in two major labs and something like this always happened.
Just be carefull what you say or how you say it.
Always drink lots of water before!!!