Damn vampires

[ganimede]

After my GP said yesterday about having a blood test to check for post-surgery anaemia, I thought it would be best to get it done asap. Apparently there's 4 places I can go now to get stabbed: the surgery itself (but only on Fridays before 10.30am), a local clinic (but only on Wednesdays before 12.30pm), the hospital or a new health centre that

Comments

[ftmichael]

Ouch!!! That is some seriously bad work. I've known people with problem veins and they didn't walk away with bruises like that after a blood draw, ever. Sounds like the nurse was either really quite incompetent or was having a seriously bad day. I hope it heals quickly!

[ganimede]

I often bruise badly after having blood taken, as I'm sure you know but I've never had anything quite as bad as this. And I told the nurse as she was getting stuff ready that I tended to bruise badly but she just asked me if I was putting pressure on for long enough.

It's got a bit bigger this morning, it's now about 3" square and the outside is going purple, green and yellow. At least, it's not quite so painful now which is a bonus.

[wellinever]

i had a really nasty one about 6 months ago... unfortunately i only took a photo 2 weeks after it happened, it was about twice the size before.

[ganimede]

It's not easy taking a photo of the inside of your arm, is it? That looks like quite a nasty bruise though, and it's halfway down your arm! What on earth were they doing to you??

[wellinever]

yeah... when i first had it, it started from just at the inside of my bicep all the way down to where you can see that mole is on my forearm. by the time i took the photo, as 2(!) weeks had passed, it had faded more in the elbow/bicep area. weirdly, i had another blood test yesterday before i wrote that comment, and i told the guy about the huge arm bruise incident and he said he thought the health assistant must have gone right through out the other side of the vein - so it just bled all internally right down my arm. gross. fortunately last night's blood test has no bruise at all!

hope yours is looking better today.

[ganimede]

I've bruised quite badly in the past but never as bad as that! It's pretty gross thinking about a simple blood test causing internal bleeding though, I mean, wtf? It just goes to show how some nurses must take more care than others, that really shouldn't be the case.

Mine is looking way more colourful today. It's now 3" square so I'm just hoping it doesn't get any bigger because it's pretty obvious as it is. People are going to wonder what the hell I've been doing. Did you have anyone comment on your huge bruise?

[polkadotsquared]

Holy Wowzers. Not the best nurse in the area then. Hopefully it's worth it though to get an answer (if she took enough blood).

[ganimede]

My mother had to go off for a blood test this morning too and she wouldn't even think of going to the health centre. Can't imagine why.

My concern is now that the nurse didn't get enough blood for them to test and I'll have to go back and get more taken. Don't really want to have two bruised arms!

[polkadotsquared]

Hah. Very wise woman then :)

Yeah, I have no idea what they do with it but CSI uses miniscule amounts for all sorts of super serious crime tests. Hoping your phlebotomist (sp) can handle a smaller volume than usual or that they only take that much normally for fun.

[ganimede]

Oh, I know. When I was at the Science Festival a few weeks ago, I got to be a phlebotomist and do a diabetes test. The amount of blood used was about this big: O I was like, why do you take so much if you only want a dot of it?? I did actually get a leaflet from them about it, called 'What Happens to my Blood Sample?' but it doesn't cover 'why the hell do you take so much?!?'

[g3m1n1]

Ouch! That looks painful.

[ganimede]

It was! It's not too bad now, just a little bit tender.

[adam_snake]

That is bad! Without going in detail i suggest you get it checked by a doctor sooner rather than later!

Hpe it gets better soon