August 18, 2008
Just Like the Movies
If my life were a movie, it would probably resemble a gory vampire flick. Switching primary care physicians has unleashed a horde of new doctors and specialists in my life. And each one of them wants my blood. And not just a little bit here or there, but a few vials before an appointment and another few after, then a few more in couple weeks, and more yet before the next appointment. They're downright blood-thirsty.
FAIR WARNING: If you get squeamish during vampire movies or are uncomfortable with descriptions of blood and needles, you might want to skip the rest of this entry.
To satisfy the pre-appointment needs of one new doctor, I went to the local hospital during my lunch hour to have some bloodwork done. Two phlebotomists with at least five different vials pounced on me. The first woman seemed very unsure of the large, deep vein I offered and had difficulty locating it, looking back and forth between my arm and the other woman in the room. After the second minute of hesitant tapping, I noticed the student designation on her badge. She checked my other arm before returning to the original vein, and after getting confirmation from the senior tech and some reassurance from me, went for it.
I mentioned to both of them that vein was tricky, but that's really an understatement. I've had blood drawn from it at least once a week this month and each time it needed a particular angle and a bit of coaxing to keep it going. So when the student encountered trouble with it part-way into the first vial, I recommended changing the angle a bit and applying light pressure to below my elbow to get more tension on the skin. But she was hesitant to do anything but poke deeper. When she couldn't fill the first or second vials, she handed things over to the senior tech. I'm pretty sure she was getting ready to try a different angle on the same vein, but when she retracted the needle a mini geyser appeared, shocking all of us.
As we cleaned up and prepped to try the other arm, the senior phlebotomist mentioned that she'd never seen anything like that while drawing blood. She had always assumed it was just something they did in the movies and on TV. As luck would have it, a smaller vein in my other arm proved to be cooperative and we filled all five or six vials without a problem. No prodding, no extra poking, and no horror-movie special effects.
I've never been squeamish about having blood drawn or being poked with needles, so I was more than happy to have a student work on me. But at this point, I feel like I've had so much blood drawn that I would rather it be done and over with as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Posted by criminal at 2:27 PM | Comments (0)
August 6, 2008
A few new things
- It's raining again. And holding the temperature in the 60s, so there's an upside. All the rain we've seen during the last few weeks has made me contemplate buying a pair or galoshes. Last year's snow created similar urges for high-quality boots, which I still haven't purchased.
- I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things, craft-wise. After two great classes at Ink About It with Dave Brethauer and a little shopping, I came home to participate in a Virtual Meeting of the A Muse Addicts (VMAA). I wanted to use my newly learned watercolor techniques on every challenge, but limited myself to *most* of the challenges. I have a few card ideas bouncing around in my head that I should try to transform into actual cards tonight. And I can't wait to break into the new goodies I brought home, including some new Memory Box stamps.
- Not only am I back into the swing of things, but I'm lucky too. They drew two names in each class to win a pack of Memory Box paper and I was lucky enough to get picked. I scored a pack of summery, 6x6 papers perfect for card-making. The I got a call yesterday from Lori that I won the larger Memory Box drawing to celebrate the latest release. I'm dying to know what I won, but I don't think I'll be able to make it to the store until at least tomorrow evening. Since Jon will be at the Pats pre-season game, I think I can justify the trip.
- In less lucky news, the bloodwork I had done last week came back with lower than normal TSH levels, which means my thyroid is back to it's overactive ways. I need to have more blood drawn before next week's appointment with my endocrinologist. Sadly, I'm going to have to ask him for references for other endocrinologists because he doesn't accept the new health insurance I'm switching to next month. Which really just means I'll have to go through my history and paperwork with yet another doctor and hope that we don't waste too much time in the process.
Posted by criminal at 3:38 PM | Comments (0)