Black and Blue

I had an appointment with Dr. Wootton today. John was supposed to go with me, but he forgot and scheduled an appointment at work, so I called Mom and she went with me. It's not that I can't go by myself, but I knew that Mom would like to go. The appointment went fine, but I am having issues with the blood sugar test.

Let me back up to Monday...

Moday I had my first sonogram which was awesome! We saw Baby Riggs wiggling around and we got to hear his/her heart beat. I was also supposed to have my blood drawn for a one hour glucola test, which measures blood sugar levels. Basically you have to drink this orange stuff about 30 minutes before you get to the Dr's office. Then you tell them exactly what time you finished the orange stuff. Then they draw your blood one hour from when you drank it. At least, that is what is supposed to happen!

Here's what really happened...

I drank the orange stuff at 10:30 AM (not too bad, like Sunkist with a bad aftertaste). John and I got to the Dr's office at 11:00AM and I told them what time I drank it. Then we went back and did the sonogram. We were back in the lobby at 11:15 to wait for the blood test. 11:30 came and still nothing, so I asked the receptionist. With a startled look, she quickly paged nurse #1 (names are ommitted to protect the not-so-innocent.) About 15 minutes later nurse #1 called me back to draw my blood. After looking both arms over, she thought my right arm looked better, so she tied my arm with a big rubber band, jabbed me with a big needle, and totally MISSED the vein! To make matters worse she persisted to try to find the vein by wiggling the needle around in my arm! Frustrated, she decided to give the other arm a try. She found a smaller needle that was attached to a little tube which attached to the collection device. Now, just skip back up to jabbing, missing, and wiggling again. You get the idea! A little tiny bit of blood came out this time, but it didn't even go all the way down the tube! I think she was feeling pretty bad by this point, so she went to get some help. Since it had been an hour and a half since I drank the orange stuff, I questioned the accuracy of the test, but nurse #1 assured me that it would be fine.

Fast forward about 10 more minutes...

Nurse #1 reenters with nurse #2. Just before nurse #2 was about to get another needle out, Natalia mentioned the time frame. Nurse #2 stated that on a one hour glucola test, you only have about a 5 minute time window to draw the blood. That translates to 11:35AM... which I was still in the lobby!!! Aggghhhh!!! So, since I was coming back on Thursday to see the Dr., I could just do it then.

And that brings us back to today...

When I arrived at the Dr's office I told them what time I drank the orange stuff and took a seat in the lobby. I needed my blood drawn at 11:20AM, so I was watching the clock like a hawk! At about 11:18 she (nurse #2) called me back. She was taken aback when she saw the large bruises on the insides of my arms. I reminded her of Monday's incident, so she decided to draw the blood out of the top of my hand. Ouch!!! And... She MISSED!!! What is the problem??? She proceeded to tell me that I have very bad veins, so I informed her that when I had blood work on my first visit, they had drawn it on the first try downstairs at the lab. So she sent me running down to the lab! Remember, we only had a few minutes left!!! When I got to the lab the guy made me wait! "Oh no!" I thought in terror, but soon I was called back and greeted by a familiar face, the girl who drew my blood the very first time. I explained the situation and she went to work. As she felt for my veins, she said, "Oh, I remeber you from last time and you have a real nice vein right here!" and the blood flowed, and flowed!

And the moral of the story is...

Go to the Lab and ask for Jerri in the first place!