Lab Day

I hate lab days! We went to take Darein last Thursday afternoon to repeat one of her labs for her congenital adrenal hyperplasia as well as to repeat a couple of other hormone levels. This was supposed to just be a routine arterial stick and be done, no problems. As we were driving there Darein wanted to make sure that she was going to get her blood drawn through her artery instead of a regular vein since they would give her some numbing medicine while they drew the blood. I told her that I was sure they would but thought maybe she should try a regular blood draw instead. She agreed though she wasn't very happy with it. When we arrived at the hospital the nurse, Tina asked how Darein wanted to have her blood drawn. I told her that she wanted it done arterially but wasn't sure if this was a good idea. Tina thought it was an excellent idea since she had been stuck so many times before. She ordered the labs and we were thankful that only 3 ml's were needed. While we were waiting on the respiratory therapist to get there to do the stick I asked Tina if they had lots of kids that they saw that were tough sticks. She said yes and that most of them came from Darein's endocrinologist in Columbia but stated that even as tough as many of the kids are, Darein is one of the toughest. The therapist finally came up to draw Darein's blood and gave her a shot of the numbing medicine in her artery. She did great. However, when he went to stick her for the blood he had quite a bit of difficulty. He moved the needle around all over in her arm. Darein couldn't feel a thing but my stomach kept getting more and more nauseous from watching. He finally got the blood but the artery quit giving after 1 ml. He finally took it out and I had to turn to Shane at that time who was sitting in the chair beside Darein's bed and ask him to take over. I left the room and headed down the hall to the restroom. I had managed to break out in a sweat, felt nauseous and thought I was going to pass out. This is the first time in 14 years I have ever come close to passing out. I was so mad at the therapist for digging in her arm so much even though she was in no pain from it at all. I have seen so many phlebotomists dig around in her arm and we only let them do it so much before we tell them to stop as it causes her so much pain. After using the restroom and getting a drink of water I finally calmed down enough to enter the room again. When I got back to the room, they were done. Shane said that when the therapist went back into her artery he dug a little more but then finally got the artery and it gave a little extra blood. The therapist said to make sure that next time she has to have blood drawn that I tell the therapist that it is very deep in Darein's arm.
I worry about the fact that she is only 14 years old and still has many more surgeries and blood draws to endure and the fact that her veins and now possibly her arteries are starting to close up and be harder and harder to get any blood from. She is scheduled on Friday February 5th to see her kidney surgeon and she will have to have pre-op labs drawn I am sure prior to surgery and then an IV placed during surgery. I talked to my sister-in-law who is a respiratory therapist and she told me not to worry that they will be able to get blood from her if they need to. She has offered to do Darein's labs if we would like her to as she is pretty good at it. It is reassuring to know that we have someone in the family to talk to about this and that can help us through these questions.
Darein's arm was not bruised the next day and she laughed at me for almost passing out saying, "mom, if anyone should have been upset it should have been me and I wasn't so you shouldn't". I love this kid :) LOL