OMG SHARP POINTY, and other plasma-related adventures.

[azurelunatic]

If you're squicked out by medical/needle type stuffs, you probably want to give this entry a pass.

I went off to give plasma. Foolishly, I did not bring a reading book. Also foolishly, when the one girl went to stick me and I knew that she does not know my veins, I did not request someone else to stick me. So she stuck me and I held my star and she got someone else to fix the stick, and it didn't give splashback (flashback?) but finally it drew and all was good ... until it went to return.

There was not enough of a hole for the blood to return to me. Assorted phlebotomists flocked. There are two, Lindsay and Christine(?) who know my veins pretty well. Christine thought that she could get it back in me in my other arm, even if they couldn't draw from there. She called for a new needle for a re-stick, after finding that the vein in my left arm is like an inch off where logic says it should be. Unfortunately, she managed to stick the needle in a half-inch on the other side of the vein, making totally for absolutely no returning of my red cells. Two veins, out of luck.

I am deferred for eight weeks. Lindsay is at least mildly distraught, because that's all the plasma place's bad stick and my scarred-up veins that make them unable to get 16 units of plasma that they would have otherwise almost surely gotten. I'm also one of the people who is happy, healthy, and does not cause trouble. There's a certain amount of drama lingering around plasma places. Evidently being polite and cheerful, almost unfailingly so, without being too nosy, makes me much-liked.


I was less traumatized by the digging-around this time, because I trust both of those two with my veins. I had the star clasped tightly in my hand (as I always do for things like that) and I survived it. I wasn't happy about it, but I survived it and I'd trust them to stick me again. Except not the girl who bungled it; she's done badly with my veins before, and 2nd time is Right Out; there will be no third strike.

Comments

[kestrelct.livejournal.com]

Ugh, sorry to hear that. I went in to give whole blood and was again told that my veins are sad and small, and then the nice man dug around in my arm pretty badly, turning the whole thing purple from the blood pressure cuff in the meantime, until he finally gave up and admitted that a small piece of my arm was stuck in the needle and it had defeated him. I had not previously had my arm bleed anywhere but into the needle, so watching it pool in the crook of my elbow was a sign that something was Not Working even had it not hurt like the dickens. Guess it's not the day for sharp pointy things.

[azurelunatic]

The worst part was how they had to throw away all my lovely red cells.

[kestrelct.livejournal.com]

AHHH! Oh no! That's awful!!

[iblis-kukl.livejournal.com]

[azurelunatic]

It was less bad than it could have been. At least I've established that if it's someone I trust working on my vein, I merely wince and flinch if they've got something wrong. If it's not someone I trust, or someone I don't trust, I start hyperventilating and crying.