Wednesday was the monthly blood panel. Whee. This meant the 12 hours fasting, which isn't a problem, but did mean nothing to drink after midnight, which *is* a pain.
So, bright and shiny, I'm in line at the lab at 6:55 AM. There are about 20 people ahead of me. Either Kaiser is having a 2 for 1 sale, or a lot of people thought if they showed up mid-week, it would be quieter than Friday. Guess not.
Thirty minutes later, I'm seated. Now, one of the little problems I have are itty bitty veins that are very deep, curl like mad, and move out of the way when the needle hits. Luckily, I have a high pain tolerance, and I don't barf, so when the lab people start digging for treasure, I'm usually not in too bad of a state. It's painful afterwards, because there's usually a lot of blood that gets loose during the procedure, and I usually bruise as well.
The bright, shiny extern greeted me. I explained my problem, and she looked worried. Good--I'd rather have worried than challenged. I had one of those two months ago, and it took four sticks before she hit a vein that didn't immediately collapse, and she was a mess by that time. I wasn't exceptionally happy either, but the juvie specialist was busy with a baby (I usually ask for someone who has experience with juvie or gerontology).
Okay, she ties on the tourniquet and starts to look for a vein in my left arm. She couldn't find one. I suggest that she take the easy method and get it from my wrist. She looked sick. Then she yelled for the supervisor, who came over, went looking for a vein, shook her head, and then retied the arm and gave it a couple of slaps. She hit a vein on the first try. She made a remark to the effect of needing to tell the veins who's boss here, and went on her way.
Okay, so I figure I'm good for another month. Nope--I get a call the next day from the Doctor's office that my Creatine levels are somewhere in the stratosphere (can you say two orders of magnitude higher than they should be?), and could I come in for a recheck.
Off to the lab again. This time we decided to take it out of the top of my left hand. A quick stick, and they have their tubeful. Trouble is, even after the needle has left and the pressure has been applied, I'm still bleeding through the gauze. Numerous gauze pads, pressure, and holding my hand above my head for about 10 min, and that settled down. I now have a quarter-sized bruise on the back of my left hand.
But wait--there's more! The next day I get a call from the Doctor's office. The Creatine level is *up* from the day before, and I need to come in for another blood test *and* a "kidney function test". Time to grab a bottle of water and head on in.
I'd like to point out at this time that women are not functionally set up to pee into a centrifuge tube. Thank you.
I saw the same blood draweras the day before. Once she saw my lack of veins she remembered who I was and we had a short talk about where we should take a crack at this time. The right arm was looked at and there wasn't anything that looked remotely promising. I told her our next choices were the top of the right hand or either wrist. The person in the booth next to ours was trying not to listen, but looked vaguely ill.
So, after tying off the right hand and having it hang over the side of the lab cushion, we were able to get the tube d'jour.
I have another blood test and "kidney function test" Monday morning. I'm drinking a lot of water, and hoping I get some veins in the meantime.
Posted by lsefton at August 28, 2004 07:06 PM