My veins are hard to find, (whether to draw blood or to insert an I.V.), especially when I am dehydrated. Up until this week, the record number of tries was 4. The new record is 5. I had to have a colonoscopy and an endoscopy three days ago. Since I was going to undergo general anesthesia to do the procedures, I had to have an I.V. Just before the nurse was going to begin, I said "good luck finding a vein". I'm sure she was thinking..."I've done this a thousand times. This is going to be a piece of cake."
First attempt - part-way up my right forearm. She found the vein, but when she went to advance the tube, it blew the vein.
Second attempt - in my right wrist below the thumb. Again, she found the vein, but the same thing happened.
By this time she was gun shy so she went and got someone else to give it a try.
This new nurse happened to be Ana - the nurse who checked me out when I first arrived.
Third attempt - in my right hand. She, too, struck out. She found the vein, but once again, when she tried to advance the tube, it blew the vein.
I look like a battered wife with all of these bruises on my hands and arm!
After Ana failed to complete the task, she got gun shy as well and went to find Joshua who must be the best vein finder in the building. They didn't want me to have to go through any more painful pokes.
Dehydration makes the veins shrink and I hadn't had anything to drink since midnight the night before. To compound that problem, my hands were cold. My hands and feet are almost always cold, so that wasn't new, but that can also make the veins shrink. Double strike against me.
In comes Joshua ready and willing to give it a try. He decides to go for my left hand. He puts the rubber tourniquet around my arm, has me pump my hand a few times to try to encourage my veins to show up to the party. Since my hands were so cold, he was tempted to bring in a hot compress, but decided against it.
Fourth attempt - David inserts the needle, finds the vein, but again blew a vein for the 4th time. He apologizes and says "I'm usually a one-and-done guy." That didn't help much, but I felt sorry for these nurses and I kept apologizing and they kept apologizing. None of us were happy with the situation.
Fifth attempt - Joshua decides to try one more time. He said if he can't find a vein, they will have the anesthesiologist do it. Joshua poked again in the left hand right next to his first attempt. Finally, this time we were met with success. I was so relieved...and so was he!!!
I had a little bruising from these last two attempts, but not nearly as bad as my right hand and arm. It would be easier to see if my age spots disappeared, but you can see the poke hole a couple of inches below my middle and pointer fingers.
Evidently, according to the nurse who removed my I.V., I have thin skin. That's probably the only thin thing on my body. Haha!
Like most people who have had a colonoscopy, I hate them!!! I wish I never had to have another one ever again, but they can be lifesaving. A few polyps were found and removed and sent for biopsy. I will get the lab results in about a week. Hopefully they are benign. I have to repeat the endoscopy in one month. Not sure why.
This is a funny side-note:
As I checked in at the front desk when I first arrived, the woman checking me in asked if I had prepped the night before. I said, "Yes. That would be an awful trick on the doctor if I hadn't." She answered back: "We've had some patients show up for the procedure without prepping first, so we have to ask." Now that's a "dirty" trick on the doctor for sure! I wouldn't want his job!!!
