Seventh Time's the Charm: Hospital Lab Debacle

[_KimberlyAnn]

I'm so pissed.

I've had a fever the past couple of days, so I decided to go to the doctor this afternoon.

He sent me to the nearby hospital lab for some tests. A nurse came and got me, saying she needed six vials of blood, so she hoped I'd had plenty to drink. Well, I hadn't had anything to drink since breakfast when I went to the lab and all they had was a water fountain, so I drank what I could, but I knew my blood would be like sludge anyway. Oh, well.

I sat down, rolled up my sleeves, and the young nurse put that rubber band thingy around my arm.

Slap! Slap! Thump! She was slapping the heck out of my arm, my wrist, the back of my hand. She pulled the needle out of a paper wrapper. It was about two inches long. I said, "Woah." She said, "I need a lot of blood. I have to use a big needle." OK.

She threaded it into a vein on my left forearm, prodding and poking and pulling the needle in and out over and over. Nothing. So, she went for the back of my left hand. Same prodding and poking and twisting and pulling. Nothing. Then, my wrist. The underside of my wrist. Nothing. I already didn't feel well. I was about to lose it with the girl. I couldn't even watch what she was doing without feeling faint.

She apologized for all the bruising I'd have and decided to attempt to draw blood from my right arm.

I asked, "Should you get someone else to try? I really want to be finished here. I have kids to pick up at school."

"No, I can do it as well as anyone else. Your veins are weird and crooked. That's why I can't get blood."

So, the same scenario with the right arm. Needle twisting and pulling and pushing. Finally, I just couldn't stand it anymore. I was about to cry--not because I hurt or because I was sad. I was PISSED. My fever was getting worse and I was shivering. I really wanted to kick that nurse. It was all I could do not to.

"Don't touch me again. Get someone else right now!"

So, she disappeared and an older woman eventually came to give it a try. She put the band around my right arm, pushed around a little on my hand, then slid the needle right into my vein. It worked. My blood WAS like sludge, though, and it took a long time to get enough, but the job was done. On the SEVENTH try.

So much for the weird, crooked vein theory. That first nurse was just incompetent and I'm hacked that I served as her pincushion. I feel like at the very least I ought to get my co-pay back or something. Seriously. Grrr.

KA

[_skippy the dead]

Oh man, I hate incompetent blood-takers. Sludgy blood or not, getting the needle in shouldn't be a difficult process for somebody who knows what they're doing. And I say this as one with squiggly veins.

Hopefully the bruising and ouchiness goes away quickly.

[_Ray A]

You should have at least been warned:

[_Dr. Shades]

Your fever doesn't have anything to do with your recent surgery, does it?

I'd hate to see you suffer from complications.