All the colours of the rainbow ...

[Pixilated]

So I go to get blood drawn today for a battery of tests (no problems that I know of -- mom has diabetes, high blood pressure, thyroid problems, etc., and apparently these can all pass down the maternal line so this is preventative medicine, as it were).

Nurse has a touch of trouble finding the vein. I now have a very impressive rainbow in the crook of my right arm.

[Food Lady]

Once neither my doctor nor either nurse could find mine, so they said, "You'll have to go across town to the lab." I thought What are they gonna do to me if you can't find it? I've never run into that again. My veins seem relatively easy to find now. Weird.

[Marmalady]

Medical staff have never had any problem finding any of my veins.

Picking me up off the floor and bringing me round afterwards, that's the problem they usually have....

[Cazzi]

My veins are usually pretty easy to find.. apart from the time I had to have an intravenous dye for a scan just after my daughter was born.
One nurse tried & failed to get the vein, a 2nd nurse got the vein but it leaked so they called out the head guy who managed to inject the dye via my ankle without a mark!
They did say I may get a discoloured bruise there later.... they weren't kidding.. it was practically from my wrist to halfway to my armpit!
It was a good job that the outfit I'd chosen for my post baby first night a couple of days later didn't clash with it

[csquared]

At the end of my hospital stay, having been pumped full of blood thinners, they removed the IV from the back of my left hand. The whole back of my hand ballooned up. I had a huge purple spot for about two weeks. Along with the other IV and blood draw locations.

[cashierbex]

My veins are impossible to find. Most of the time they use my hand.

[AnaKhouri]

My veins are very easy, Only once while giving blood did someone mess it up; she got it in at a bad angle, jiggld it around inside my arm to get the blood to flow (OW!) and then managed to pierce the vein somehow so I had a huge black bruise there for weeks. Only bad time I ever had with nedles though.

[telecom_goddess]

On my arms I have one good spot to draw from. one. That's it. And I get blood drawn often for various reasons so that poor spot is getting abused. It's holding up well though

[klhanson]

a few months ago i was in the ER for something and they had to draw blood.. she said she didn't like the look of the vein but used it anyway and burst it.. my arm from just above my elbow to partway towards my wrist was so bruised.. I had to fly that next weekend and while i was waiting for my flight in san francisco it started hurting and got really hard to the touch.. they thought i had a blood clot.. it was pretty bad.

[telecom_goddess]

while i was waiting for my flight in san francisco it started hurting and got really hard to the touch.. they thought i had a blood clot.. it was pretty bad.

and did you? what happened?

[dalesys]

Re: Thread title:

"I'm entering this arm in the Pride Day Parade."

[ngc_7331]

I've been told that I have very nice veins, which I guess is a compliment. (Although if it was used as a pickup line, I would back away slowly) But once when I was getting a physical for I summer temp job that I got for between semesters, the nurse drawing blood did...something. I don't know what and I probably never will but I had a bruise on the inside of my arm starting just above my elbow down to almost touching my wrist. It covered the entire inside of my lower arm. Being the middle of summer, there was no possible way to hide it since I was working a warehouse job in a non-air conditioned warehouse. The bruise didn't completely fade away until mid-September, three weeks after the job ended. It was pretty spectacular though. I didn't know humans could be those colors.

Re: Thread title:

"I'm entering this arm in the Pride Day Parade."

[bhskittykatt]

Once when I was giving blood, I clotted up. The phlebotomist started twisting the needle trying to get me started again. She hit a nerve, I screamed, she yanked it out saying "Okay, we're DONE!" Every day for the next two weeks, my bruise was a different color...

[klhanson]

and did you? what happened?

I saw my dr when i got back to ohio and he said if there was anything there it was gone and it was healing now.. it still looks weird though if you look at it right.. i'll try to get a picture of it.. the bruisings gone.. but i still have a very small hardish bump under the skin near the vein