Hugs for nurses

My veins seem to be disappearing. There is always trouble at blood draws and trying to get the IV's started for chemo. Last Thurs I had to give blood, and the phlebotomist was committed to getting blood out of a vein on my right elbow. Have you ever had someone stick the needle in, miss the vein (in his defense my veins do "roll") and just keep moving the needle around hoping to hit the vein? I had to tell him that one wasn't going to work. He pulled the needle and went for another vein in the elbow, even though I mentioned that the ones on the hand looked pretty good today...... He did eventually get blood out of the second poke, for some reason it felt like he had been digging around in my arm for about, oh, an hour!

My counts were low, but still good enough for chemo last Friday. We went down to Mayo and Marcia was my nurse. She heated up the arm and then started smacking it, trying to get the veins to come up. Then she started singing to my arm. The other nurse came running in asking if Marcia was really singing, and I had to admit that she was, but it worked. She got a vein to come up and the IV in with one stick. I complemented her on the singing and IV, she said she'd been training for that stick for 15 years. You gotta love those chemo nurses...... I have a feeling that most good nurses never get the credit they deserve. Lisa and Deb can probably attest to that. But a good nurse can change the whole experience around, at least in the chemo ward. Marcia made me laugh (as well as the 4 other patients in our bay), and obviously cared a great deal about what she did. Like I said, ya gotta love em!!