Phlebotomists at St Joseph Medical Center in Lewiston ID...no experience necessary.

Damn! Just damn...🤕😎

Holy fugk.


In my experience, 50% of phlebotomists are either completely incompetent or really really angry people.

How many attempts Charlie? Put some arnica on that.

Holy Cow!

My wife just had a bad one use her as a pin cushion at our local small town hospital, but she was unscathed by comparison.

Jeezbuz H Montecristo Charlie,

Dont go hanging no paper for awhile.

Damn. I believe I would’ve asked for someone else to come do it!

At the health center I go to they are allowed only two sticks. After that they are required to get someone else to do it

^^^^This is going to be my new policy.^^^^

Four....maybe five Mike......I lost count.

Never heard of Arnica......I'll look it up.

Holy chit!

Walgreens ought to have it. Maybe Chinese embassy as well. It's supposed to be good for bruises etc. Often reco'd by chiropractors and naturopaths. It's in a balm I use on knuckle arthuritis.

She just confused you with her voodoo doll...

That's just wrong.

Arnica is carried in a very small jar ( ~ 1 1/2 " across X 1 1/2" high) at our Walmart pharmacy area.
Very useful, but very hard to spot on the aisles.

Dang, that had to suck.

As in a retarded vampire sucking on an arm...😬😎

Showed that pic to my nurse wife and her jaw literally (correct use) dropped.

Gnarly dude! I've seen some bad ones but a couple days earlier and you could've scared small children while handing out candy. And their parents too.

Sorry to see that.

Mehhhhh

Not impressed


Right





Left

they get one stick on me they I tell them to get someone better

I've had blood drawn quite a few times over the years and have never been stuck more than once. I can't see what they're looking at but apparently my veins are easy to find.

Are you on blood thinners?

She use a needle or a hammer?

Ow!😱

If your proctologist and/or urologist are similarly adept, a simple wriiten description of the carnage will suffice. I know a picture is worth a thousand words, but.......

WTF?

Are they blind ?

Were you dehydrated? Small veins?

Stupid person doing the work is a given.

They have a lot of trouble drawing blood from my wife. She has small veins and they are hard to hit. It's not unusual for them to have to try a couple of times. What they did to you is ridiculous. I've had them punch through my vein before and that's not fun.

Awfully sorry for your tribulations.

That sucks Charlie.

Do you usually have trouble? I know some folks are just hard to find veins on, my wife is one of them. Me, usually one stick and there's blood flowing!

When they gotta stick more than once I always think we all gotta start some where. Ain't a one of us here that didn't get to where we are by not screwing up.

Mine are easy to hit, nurses say they can hit them from across the room

I started many hundreds of IVs when I was a paramedic. I was really good at it.
Some of the health care providers are not so good.

And, after all, the guy who finished last in his class in medical school is working as a doctor, same as the guy who finished first.

That is rough Charlie, I hope the results of the tests are so good that they offset the misery. Good luck.


mike r

Thats why I quit donating blood.


Sorry you got messed up Charlie.

If I'm lucky, they can get it 1st time in under 5 minutes with a little rooting around.

Thanks God I've never come out looking anything like that.

Docs typically don’t do venipuncture enough to be good. A smart one will get a nurse first.

So did you grab her arse about the time she was going to poke you? Somehow, you apparently pizzed her off.

I'm a 21-gallon donor, so I'm pretty scarred. (That's 168 donations with a fat needle.) At the VA last month for some tests, the lab tech had to fish around a while with the needle before she found a vein. I ended up asking her if maybe I could try. I really think I'd be better at it than half the phlebos I see.

I have my annual at the VA this week, with more blood work tomorrow. Different clinic, though. The guy up here is pretty good.

I know. In fact, in 14 years working at a hospital I never saw a doc start an IV. My point is that in every branch of the medical field, there are some really good health care providers, and there are some that are not so good.

Pretty normal for me to have them try 5 or 6 times before they get blood. Record is 7 times. She said " I don't know where to try next". Told her there won't be a next, and walked out. Man, enough was enough! Been like that all my life, and I am 66 now. Gets to hurting pretty bad sometimes when they try. Just plain a hard stick! Always envied those with great big protruding veins!!

I have heard some bad stuff about St Joes since the buyout..No more Blue Cross excepted for one...Many employees complaining...

Jumpin' Jehosaphat FG,

That's worse than has ever occurred with me, and I'm no easy draw. Lotta times they have to use the back of my hand, I even recommend it if they take more than a few seconds just checking out my arm. One of the veins on my hand is getting scarred though, and I've been told they might not be able to use it much longer.

One time when someone took three tries and didn't get a hit, I told her I had friends out on the street that could hit a vein quicker than that. And years ago I did know some folks like that.

Better results I hope the next time.

Geno

PS, this week I get to go for shots in my eyeball after I get dye injection in my hand/arm.........................I can hardly keep the excitement level in check.

I've done a lot of blood drawing during my time in the military, and was one of three corpsmen that had to train the entire nursing staff at the University of Washington Hospital back in 79, when they took IVs away from med students for reasons like that...
NONE of the nurses had any venipuncture experience on the entire nursing staff. They wanted the nursing staff to train each other.. and me and the two ex Navy corpsmen were the only three on staff with any experience..

Clearly in Charlie's picture, you can see a very large accessible vein...

yeah, my first question would be if he was on blood thinners...but they should have asked him that beforehand...

My assessment is that the "phleebotomist" put the needle right thru the vein at least twice, instead of in the vein..
once by the wrist and the second time at the spot closer to the elbow...

what makes it all the more shocking is that the vein in the picture is more than accessible and what we would call as large as a sewer pipe in the service...

maybe they could hire some junkies... at least junkies would have more experience at venipuncture than who ever 'tried' to draw blood from Charlie...

it looks more dramatic than it actually is, just as the blood is dissipating, as the arm is being moved around..

I had a crash on a motorcycle in the Army in a parking lot, when some bimbo came flying around a corner, right in the middle of the drive land and refused to even try to not hit me... I dodged her car, which kept on going, but dumped the bike and came down on my hip.....staggered across the street to the ER at the base hospital....nothing broken....but the hip was swollen and the next morning the entire hip looked like one massive 18 inch across bruise....

Daily the blood drained down my leg slowly until 2 weeks later it had all drained down to my foot, which was swollen to twice its size, and was black and blue from my ankle to the big toe...

either way, it won't kill ya, but you sure don't want to experience it twice...

hope you're back in the pink real quick there Charlie...

I had an idiot drawing blood from me spear a nerve once. It hurt for a year and a half.

Damn, Charlie. Sorry to see that, Sir.

When I got out of the hospital 2 years ago, both of my arms looked like that all the way down.

The healthcare industry really does have a lack of competence in that regard.

Oh, ok. Wasn’t sure why you brought up docs.

Took the words right outta my mouth!

Law here says on the third miss you get to punch them in the puzzy. Sorry to see that FG.

They make a light that shows veins. Some oeople are just hard sticks. Wife has had so many there is a lot of scars, then they hit a valve.
Arnica gel is at most pharmacies and health type stores alsk have pills. It does work