Yesterday was a day of the best laid plans going astray.
At 9:30am I was due a blood test, another bloody (sic) one but hopefully the last for a while. As you've read before my veins are challenging and the first round saw two nurses have to tag team against my veins.
Second round and it was a different nurse who was straight in and out of the vein - fearsome.
Yesterday morning was round three and after the ease of round two I went in all smiley and sure it would be fine. I'd have the test, pop to the swimming pool and laze my morning away, come home and work like demon...
Wrong. I required the original tag team again and this time neither could strike red gold and in the process it hurt like hell. They suggested rather than carry on using me as a pin cushion I attended the local hospital's phlebotomy clinic to see if they had better luck.
So nursing two very sore arms by this time, it was a magical mystery tour to the hospital which sidelined me to another rant - car parking charges at hospitals. I appreciate the car parks have to be paid for somehow but having had friends go through daily radiotherapy etc I know the huge financial strain it puts on some already stressed people. This rant took my mind off my arms for a few minutes.
In the hospital there was a large waiting area outside the phlebotomy clinic and the cheese counter system - take a number and watch the departures board. I got lottery ticket No93, the board was flashing 73.
Choosing a seat in waiting areas at doctors and hospitals is a fine art. You want to be close enough to other people to eavesdrop but not close enough to catch whatever they have...
*Bing-Bong* and with only a half hour wait my number was up but instead of a nice slice of Brie as at Sainsburys it was a nurse wielding a needle. At the grand old age of 32....I made my Mum come in with me. Quite a bit of prodding and the now customary nurse's chant of 'they're rubbish veins' followed but thankfully with the first prick she hit red and a vial was dually filled.
Back home the afternoon had been and gone and my to-do list sat untouched. Hey ho.
Oh dear :-( That doesn't sound like much fun.
I know what you mean about car parking charges - surely it would be more fair if patients were allowed to park for free, especially if they have to attend regularly.
Posted by: Kate | 05 August 2006 at 07:17 PM
Don't get me started on hospital car parking charges nor insufficient spaces - stroppy just wouldn't be the word ...
Posted by: Thursday | 06 August 2006 at 12:32 PM
Hospital car parking charges are outrageous. What, are they charging us to be ill? There's never any disabled spaces free either, and I just know that the people parked in those spaces don't hold "disabled badges".
Mind you, from what I read in the paper our local hospital would be bankrupt without the car-parking income!
Posted by: Stegbeetle | 06 August 2006 at 12:39 PM
Oh Gawd, I have the exact same disappearing/collapsing vein problem!
Next time (hopefully there won't be one), insist that they use a child's needle. Don't let the resident poker convince you that he/she's an "expert" at it. Four jabs down the line they may "get" it. Or not. ;-)
Posted by: Attila the Mom | 06 August 2006 at 04:44 PM