Told You!

[erastes]

Went for blood tests. Very sweet older nurse, who politely listened to my tale of my impossible hidden veins and took as much notice as if I hadn’t spoken. “Clench this hard dear, put your arm on this pillow” and off she went, torniqueting and poking and prodding and slapping and prodding. Patiently, I sat there and watched her as she searched and searched and searched. I suggested she do the back of my hand, or my foot. She took no notice. I may as well not have been there, really. She got a needle into my right arm, no success. She sighed and moved to my left arm. Poke. Prod. Slap. Prod prod prod prod. (To be honest she was a lot gentler than many nurses who by this point were all but using riding crops to get the veins to show) she stuck a needle in my arm and …. nothing.

She looked at my Kanula hand, which treacherously had entirely healed up – curse it – and said she couldn’t see any thing there either. I tried to muffle my longing to say “I told you so.”

So she told me to go to the hospital to get them done (as she only gets three goes and has to stop) which I COULD HAVE BLOODY DONE BEFORE. So I’m off there tomorrow. I’m getting hugely sick of this.  I wish sometimes I’d been a doctor or a nurse because surely I wouldn’t turn into this homogenised arse-hole they all seem to be? The patient becomes invisible. Whilst being wheeled around the hospital for myriad tests I really noticed this. My wheeler chatted to everyone he knew en route and when we got the department he chatted to the receptionist, whereas I was parked in the corner, like I was an empty wheelchair and ignored entirely.  Surely a better experience would follow if the staff spoke to the patients? Treated them like guests or clients. Asked them if they needed anything? Spoke to them?

I think the reason why I love Alec Campion (Lord Tremontaine) in The Privilege of the Sword' target=_blank>Privilege of the Sword is that he gets away with being entirely himself. He says exactly what he wants to say, and because he’s the power in the city (in fact, if not in status) people just smile and pretend he’s eccentric or mad—or they take offence and ignore him. We stifle our impulses to be like that. It’s not a good thing. I think that rather than waiting to be growing old to wear purple, standing on my head and balancing eels on my nose, I’m going to start now. And be a lot more outspoken, too.

Comments

[jenniferkoliver.livejournal.com]

I agree wholeheartedly with that last paragraph (and that was one of the things I loved about the character Alec, too). :)

Sorry to hear you're up for yet more hassle. I hope tomorrow is relatively quick and painless.

[lexin.livejournal.com]

I sympathise - I think one of the reasons I'm having so much difficulty getting a straight answer out of the staff in the hospital my mother's currently in is because they're not really seeing her as a person.

I also have invisible veins - usually they can get blood out of me, but I always have to tell them to have a 'take no shit' policy.

[seraphim-grace.livejournal.com]

i know that feeling, about blood tests = my doctor says it's like herding cats or nailing jelly to the wall
i use one of those chemical heat pads before i go in to try and bring them to the surface, but she has taken it from my wrist before.
i get injections in my ass because it's just that much easier
so i feel your pain, and when they do find the damn vein you know perfectly well that they'll stab you like Van Helsing with pmt staking a particularly snarky vampire who had the balls to ask is it that time of the month....

[venivincere]

Have you thought of getting a letter from a phlebotomist who's worked with you before that you can take and show to the various other phlebotomists that says, "This one, you have to stick her in the hand or foot." One of them might be willing to sign such a thing if you type it out and take it to them to sign. It's perfectly reasonable to not want to be stuck like a pincushion. Or, (and I think, with my limited cultural sensitivity that this is distinctly not a British thing to do, but, well, any port in a storm) the next time you ask them to please do it in the hand and they go for your arm, pull your arm away and say, "Please, no. I asked you to take it out of my hand. No one has been able to get blood out of my arm and I really don't want to be stuck full of holes again while you take your turn determining that. Please take it out of my hand." It's pushy and probably really rude, but sometimes people have to hear things twice before they really hear them, you know? *hugs*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

trouble is, I don't have anyone like that - it's all been with clinics and I've moved around so much that I have no-one to call on. Believe me, I've said all this, and it's as much use as nothing. Perhaps it's a challenge to them or something - "no-one has ever beaten me before!" As someone said on the previous post many people probably say "i have difficult veins" when they don't really and they just don't believe me until they've all been bashing around for hours. Well, not hours, as they are at least only allowed 3 goes each. However at the clinic, there will at least be more people and therefore more chances that something might come out.

[venivincere]

If you take a letter to the nurse that you just saw, d'you think she might sign it? Or, maybe, talk to them on the telephone before you go in? OH! Do they have patient advocates there? Someone who can speak for you and be heard? It might be worth looking up. We have them here, but I don't know what you have there.

[semioticwarrior.livejournal.com]

Good for you. For Pete's sake, what an unnecessary ideal. Idiots.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

The patient becomes invisible. Whilst being wheeled around the hospital for myriad tests I really noticed this. My wheeler chatted to everyone he knew en route and when we got the department he chatted to the receptionist, whereas I was parked in the corner, like I was an empty wheelchair and ignored entirely.

It's creepy how doctors and nurses do that--rendering patients completely invisible and inaudible. And yes, I'd think that talking and listening to patients would be a good thing. (Although I think that ALL doctors and nurses should spend six months in a hospital dealing with the staff as a patient. I bet we'd see some improvement in how patients are treated.)

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

A tip for next time: drink a lot of water, and I do mean a LOT, for about a week beforehand. Five to six liters a day, level of "lot."

It really helps, because it increases the fluid volume of your blood and makes the veins easier to find. I have those impossible veins too.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

well, i'm going tomorrow, so it's a bit late, but thank you for the tip, i'll try that!

[tiggothy.livejournal.com]

One of the accounts I've done work for at our place has an arm of their business as screenprinting - that's not the side we deal with, but they do occasionally send us "seconds" to store etc. One of these designs (it sticks in my mind because it's on the top of a basket & I've always had to move it out of the way) was done for some part of the NHS, and depicts a patient lying in a bed. The slogan beneath reads "When you have an operation you shouldn't feel a thing / that includes embarrassment"
Maybe they didn't see that slogan round your way? (or maybe they think it only applies in that specific instance and don't realise it means "patients are people"?)

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Even doing it today and tomorrow will help some.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

I have an IDEA!

Make up a sheet that says, "This patient warned me that the veins in her arms cannot be used for blood draws, and I am going to try anyway."

Then another line lower down, "I was unsuccessful."

When you slap down a pile of pages of those who have tried and failed, you might get their attention. And if they refuse to sign... ask for the supervisor.

Worth a try...

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Lewis Thomas suggested that same thing... and he was writing for medical journals. GREAT essay collections--"Lives of a Cell," "Late Night Thoughs on Listening to Mahler's 9th Symphony."

[lusiology.livejournal.com]

I thoroughly enjoyed Sword's Point and The Fall of Kings, but I haven't read Privilege yet. I was desperately hoping that the true king would return in FoKs because I wanted to know more about why he was so crucial to the land and what would happen. :(

[countrygirlxxoo.livejournal.com]

Hi Erastes. I'm another one with disappearing veins. I too have been poked so often that if I drank a glass of water afterwards, I would leak like a sprinkler. I finally had enough, and now every time I go to get blood drawn, I explain the situation to them and tell them exactly what to use (a butterfly needle in my case) and to take it out of the back of my hand. I even point the exact spot out on the back of my hand for them to stick to get the vein. If they don't listen to me, I get rude with them. If you get unpleasant enough, they will eventually do as you say. The butterfly needle is very fine and is a lot less painful than a regular sized needle. It's also better suited to get into the smaller veins on the back of the hand. Being rude was hard for me because I'm not that type of person, but I just couldn't take the poking and not listening to me anymore.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_needle

Also, the drinking the water helps a lot too. Drink at least 6 to 8 glasses (about 64 ounces/2 liters) of water the day before and as much as you can manage in the morning before you leave. Don't drink anything else or it will skew the test. You don't have to do it weeks in advance...a couple of days is good, even the day before because your body cycles what you drink through in about 12 to 24 hours anyway.

[cassiopaya.livejournal.com]

Well, at least we know you'd make a terrible drug addict. ^_^

Once you're in wheelchair prepare to be ignored; you are less than human. :(

SQUEE! I just read Privilege of the Sword AND I FLUCKING LOVED IT!