I got my blood drawn yesterday and my left arm still hurts for some reason.
Despite no major illnesses, I've had my blood drawn a lot in my life. Like, hundreds of times. OK, maybe not hundreds, but a good amount. (I've also been fingerprinted more than a dozen times, despite not having ever committed a major crime.) It's like any time I go to the doctor, they find some reason to take some blood. I'm only in my early thirties and I've had my cholesterol checked four times! My HDL is 80 -- my greatest achievement in life.
I used to be a little squeamish about blood draws. In college, I valiantly donated blood, but then I made the mistake of looking at the blood after it was out of me. I told the guy drawing the blood that I was a little queasy and the bastard stuck smelling salts under my nose. Have you ever smelled smelling salts? It kind of feels like being punched in the nose. I didn't like it.
Anyway, I'm all deconditioned now from being a doctor, so I don't really mind having my blood drawn. It hurts for a minute, then for a bit after, then the tape hurts coming off, then that's it. I've given birth, I can deal with pain. No big deal.
Except last year I got a new doctor, and of course, during my first visit, they wanted to draw blood. And it hurt a good amount while they were doing it, which was okay. But then it hurt the next day and the day after that, and a week later, my biceps was still sore. Finally, it faded.
I figured it was some kind of fluke. I had my blood drawn since then at another place and it was fine. Except I went back to that doctor's office today, again consented to have my blood drawn, and while the needle didn't hurt going in, afterwards I had a lot of pain in my biceps and forearm. I was hoping to sleep it off, but my biceps still hurts a day later! I fully expect it to be sore for the next week again.
I don't get it. It didn't even hurt that much when they were drawing the blood. There's not really any bruising. How do they so consistently make my arm this sore? Is there some kind of special needle they're using to cause extra pain? Seriously, what's up with that?
Hm, sounds like an insidious plot to instill a low level of dread. Perhaps not the most evil of evil plans as evil plans go, but still mildly disconcerting.
ReplyDeleteI've had that problem before with some phlebotomists (Red Cross). I think what's happening is they're going through and through the vein then pulling back out, leaving you with a puncture that bleeds and binds to the fascia/muscle underneath.
ReplyDelete"Fizzy has an appointment today. Make sure we have those special needles in stock."
ReplyDeleteI have an off-topic question, but this seems like a good place for it. How do doctors choose their own docs? I have enough trouble figuring out who to visit when I move to a new town. Do you guys look for the prettiest ad in the phone book like I do? Naturally none of my friends have health insurance, so they can't recommend a doc since they never go. How do you do it?
ReplyDeleteI had a stretch there where my GI doc and allergist had me doing blood draws all the freaking time - seriously, human pin cushion over here! There was one guy in our hopsital's lab who would just kill me every time he drew my blood...big, fat, nasty bruises and it HURT. There was other other guy who did it and it took about two seconds and felt like nothing had happened at all. Guess which guy I kept ending up getting?? Horrible-stabby-lab-tech guy!! My poor arms looked like I had a nasty crack habit going on there for a while...I'm such a delicate flower.
ReplyDeleteIt's just weird cuz I've had blood draws in the past where I had pain, but never pain that lasted like a week. I didn't realize that was even possible. And why do I always have the problem at this one place, even with different phlebotomists (I think)?
ReplyDeleteSean: If that were to happen, would it hurt so much *right* after? I'm really curious about this.
my one vein is scarred from teaching med students to draw blood... i look like a druggie. a smarter doctor would have had them use each other, but it never seemed to work out that way...
ReplyDeleteIt's weird it hurts so much, and for so long after... even when one of my fellow MS 2's learned on me it didn't hurt much!
ReplyDeleteI honestly can't believe that you're posting this today, as the same exact thing happened to me when I went to visit my doctor yesterday! I woke up this morning, and my upper arm and shoulder feel like they do after getting a shot.
ReplyDeleteAside from that, I may consider asking to get a new lab tech to draw my blood, because the one I have seen every time cannot for the life of her find my veins. I am a very small person and have been told my veins are WONDERFUL. This lady just can't seem to find them, and spends way too much time rooting around for them at every visit. Ugh.
I am currently a MS2, I've drawn blood numerous times, and I'm really tempted to look at her and say "Can I just do this? Please?" because something tells me that I could do a much better job on myself that she has in the past.
I once had someone actually miss my vein and hit a tendon when donating blood. That hurt! and it hurt for a while.
ReplyDeleteNo butterflies?
ReplyDeleteDid you pay attention to which vein they were using? I worked as a phlebotomist for a while and would occasionally draw my own blood to use as an Rh control (I have O neg, it's useful in a lab). I noticed that I have one vein that lay close to a nerve or something, it would hurt out of proportion to every other vein. For days even, because I think a nerve got hit almost every time it got stuck. Now I just tell whoever is drawing my blood to choose another vein.
ReplyDeleteFizzy, sure, it did for me. I figured out what was going on b/c the pain kept recurring when I moved my arm a certain way, and then I realized it had bound down to the muscle. Took a few days of stretching/rubbing to get it to loosen up (I realized what was going on after it'd healed).
ReplyDeleteI went to donate blood at the local blood bank a few years back. I have awesome veins, and have always been told that, and I was well hydrated. However, I should have clued in that something was amiss, when an older lady kept saying that "she couldn't find my vein," and then she proceeded to take a black Sharpie marker all the way down my arm to mark the supposed path of the vein. BIZARRE. Guess what happened when she went to stab me? that needle went All.the.way. through. She blew the vein with that massive needle. Pain ensued and bruising... and tears. I had donated blood plenty of times before. This one experience has kept me from going back and giving more of my beloved AB+
ReplyDeleteOne of my professors, a physician, once got compartment syndrome from a blood draw. He had to get surgery.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying you have compartment syndrome. I am just saying he scared the crap out of us with the story and his scar during our phlebotomy clinic, so I figured I would pass on the fear to you.
I have had varied experiences getting blood drawn and giving blood. I'm fairly squeamish about needles and prefer NOT to have them enter my body, but if they must, I must have a person who is competent to perform the function. Most of the time, I've never had a problem and blood draws are typically painless with little or no bruising, but once, the lab tech drew blood and when she withdrew the needle it left a blood bubble under the skin that was hot and very painful to touch. It hurt even with pressure being applied to the site.
ReplyDeleteI then had to get my blood drawn a second time 2 hours later (I had a glucose tolerance test) and mentioned the blood bubble to the tech. She then "popped" the bubble by pressing really hard on the site and then "massaged" it with her thumb causing me a huge dark bruise about 4 inches. It hurt really bad and the bruise stayed for about 2 weeks before it was all reabsorbed into my body.