Freaky Friday

To preface my post... No I am not dying... I am ok.

So yesterday I had my normal monthly doctor's appointment... I went during my lunch hour as usual. I walk in and surprisingly Dr. B is running on time. Whoo-hoo! I can get in and out of here in less than an hour! I get the usual done, weight, blood pressure, medications (if any), are you in pain questions, then proceed to ask questions about the last month from my nurse. Once she's done doing her regime... she says Dr. B will be with you shortly.

Sure enough he comes in less than 5 minutes! I am always excited to see my doctor (yes I know I am a freak)... He walks through the door, shakes my hand and we exchange the whole it's good to see you again line. We then talk about the past month and discuss plans of "action" for this month. I then start talking to him about my experience with him and my sister-in-law during her cesarean section a few weeks ago. I told him it was amazing to see him in "action". I said I was surprised I didn't get sick from all of the blood. He then said, you should go to med school. Um, yeah right. I said I will "think about it".

After looking at my lab work from the past two Sundays he decides he doesn't like the results so he orders a urine sample, my favourite!! Being a woman and peeing into a cup is worse than launching a space shuttle... It takes sheer coordination which I don't have. Plus it'd be nice to just aim and fire!! And more blood to be drawn. Oh joy! More blood to give! I get lab work drawn at least twice a month so it's nothing new to me, but I'd be nice to give my poor old veins a break. He then leaves the room and his nurse comes back in and I give her my "bad" arm, which is my left. My right arm has nice "surface" veins so phlebotomists love my right arm. Me personally in my profession I enjoy a challenge. I don't do phlebotomy or am in the medical field, but still... You get my drift.

So my nurse puts the tourniquet on my arm and she asks me to make the usual fist... Ok. Done. She runs out of the room for a second then comes back and uses the open barrel needle to draw blood. Well she didn't have any luck puncturing the vein. Without hesitation she said that's ok... I will draw it from your hand. Immediately I know it's going to be pain because I have had surgeries before and know that IV's hurt like hell!! So I knew it'd only be a "pinch" and I'd get over it... So she moves the tourniquet a little lower and proceeds to draw blood from my hand. I watch her insert this seemingly huge needle into my hand. I see some blood come back up and I get nauseated! Me get nauseated from the sight of blood! Come ‘on! The feeling doesn't go away I tell the nurse that I am getting light-headed and everything goes black. I PASSED OUT! Just 5 minutes ago I am telling my doctor that I am ok with the sight of blood and guts. I come back to reality to my doctor coming in the room asking me if I am ok and his nurse giving me juice and pretzels. Talk about royal treatment!! I tell Dr. B that I am fine after a few minutes and he had asked me what happened. I told him and he asked me if I ate anything and I said no. He went on to tell me that if you have an empty stomach while getting labs drawn you can get a little sick. And that getting labs drawn from your hand is harder on the body as far as pain goes. I'll say he's right about that!! Normally I tolerate pain very, very well. Not in this case!

So we end up finishing our visit... I joke around with him about me being embarrassed about passing out with what I went through a few weeks ago and I then leave after 1 hour 40 minutes! So much for getting in and out of there within an hour! I now know why doctors work so many hours!! Because you can't make a lot of money seeing a patient for that long! (Bless whoever is reading in the medical field!!) So I muster it up to grab some lunch and go back to the office. The rest of the day my hand is sore as hell. I can barely function at all... But life goes on and I push through the pain. I never realized how much I used my left hand for things. Boy am I thankful it's there.

Come to find out the nurse should have used a butterfly cannula instead of the open barrel needle which would have been less harsh as far as pain goes. Anything could have felt better than that huge needle!

After all of this there is a moral to the story, and I realized it before going to bed last night thinking to myself... "If only I would have given her my right arm, If only I would have given her my right arm..." I now wish I gave up the arm with good veins. But if I didn't would there be such a good story that went along with it??