A couple of weeks ago the phlebotomist came out to draw my blood for tests the doctor ordered. First off this woman was 45 minutes late and when I saw who it was at my door, my stomach sank. A few months ago she came out to draw my blood and she's just not good at it. She always ends up hurting me. Now yes, I have small veins that are hard to get at so after looking at my arms they almost always go to take it from my hands. That's fine as long as you know what your doing. You're supposed to use a butterfly needle for the hand, not the same needle you use if you're getting it out of the arm. It's smaller and doesn't hurt as much.
So just like last time she has a story as to why she's late. Last time was because she had to go have blood drawn before coming here and they were taking too long to be able to get a vein from her so she went out in her car, took her own blood and brought it back in since they wouldn't let her draw her own blood in the office. Ok, sure. Might be believable.
This time she tells me she just got rear ended by a 15 year old unlicensed driver and had to wait for his mom to give her their insurance info. Then she tells me that last week she had to have blood drawn again and she has hard to get veins so she went home and showed her 10 year old daughter how to do it and let her draw her blood. So her 10 year old could do it but a trained person at the lab you went to couldn't get it for you? Ok, sure. *highly doubtful*
So she's looking at my arm and says she's not sure she can get a vein in my arm but this little vein in my hand looks good, should be no problem. It's not the big vein in the middle of my hand that they usually go for. O.o So she sticks me. Pulls it out, pushes it back in, blows right through the vein and says sorry and starts the push pull motion all over again until the blood is flowing. But she was only able to get 7 of the 11 tubes full before my vein gives out and she says it's up to me whether she sends in the ones she has or she sticks me again and tries to fill up the others. Yeah, that not happening, so I tell her just to send what she has. It was obvious to me that she was in a rush and that's why my hand was now throbbing. I'm not letting this stick happy bitch take another crack at my veins.
So she sees my hand start to bruise up right away and it's quickly swelling and turning a nice shade of purple so she puts a pressure bandage on it and tells me it'll help with the swelling to leave it on for 30 minutes. So I did. Not sure it helped though.
When she leaves I look out my bedroom door to see what car she gets into and take a look at the rear of her car. Funny thing is she parked right in front of my bedroom window so I can see her car perfectly and there's not a damn thing wrong with it. No damage, no dings, no scrapes, ...nothing. Lying, stick happy fool. The bitch probably grabbed a quickie with her side man and that's why she was late. *I actually have no idea*
I've never had the amount of pain that I experienced after having her draw my blood from what should have been a simple blood draw. My hand swelled up and turned blue, purple and green. To say I was aggravated is an understatement.
I held ice on my hand for about 2 hours but my hand still swelled up and it bruised but for some reason the bruising isn't showing up real well in the pictures. The swelling sure is though. I just had to tell you all about this woman, she's something else.
After two days the swelling started going down but a bruise up by my finger got bigger.
5 days after she drew my blood and while it's still swollen and bruised, most of the pain is gone. The swelling went down after this and the bruising started to go away but I've never had such a swollen hand from a simple blood draw before so I had to share. lol Plus that lady had some crazy stories. I wonder what her excuse for being late next time will be. I'm thinking if I see this woman at my door again I might just refuse and tell her to ask someone else to come because this is ridiculous.
UPDATE: I sent and email to my doctor asking her to ask the lab not to let this woman come back out here.
