Magnesiumgirl Posted May 31, 2011 Report Share Posted May 31, 2011 Do you have trouble with getting your blood drawn?They can never find a vein on me. It can take them 3-9 sticks. It only gets worse after they finally get the blood:I was just there today, they only took four vials of blood, and I am so POTSie! I have not been this POTSie in a long time. I was wondering if this was a POTS or Dysautonomia thing. If anyone else has trouble with blood draws, I would love to hear about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sallysblooms Posted May 31, 2011 Report Share Posted May 31, 2011 I had trouble with veins before POTS and now with POTS. Lots of people have that problem. I make sure to drink a LOT when I have to have blood drawn, iv's, etc. It has helped me a lot.One nurse put my hand/arm down and got the blood FAST that way. Some nurses are super fast, some cannot find veins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bensman Posted May 31, 2011 Report Share Posted May 31, 2011 Getting my blood drawn is a nightmare. They see me coming and want to hide!! Even the "best" have trouble with me. But, the last lady who drew me had heard about me and she drew it the old-fashioned way. She did it with a plain syringe and then filled the tubes from the syringe. First stick!I had to get a port put in for my iv saline because it was so bad.Hang in there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnesiumgirl Posted May 31, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2011 Hi guys. My veins close up so fast! They did have me bend over with my hand down once. She got more than she would have otherwise, but still not the whole order. Most of the blood-drawers (sorry, can't figure out how to spell their proper title!) refuse to touch me. The one is always really sweet, but even she qets flusstered. Oh well, at least I have somewhere that they are nice to us.I've never had them use a plain syringe before. I wonder if that would work, mine are so small they have to use the butterfly. I drink a Ton (about 10 glasses) of water before going in too... Oh well, it is what it is, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnesiumgirl Posted June 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2011 Do you guys have worse symptoms after a blood draw? If so how do you deal with them? Any tips for recovering quickly?It has taken me all day of water, salt, and gatorade to finally get out of bed. I don't remember having this problem before, but than again, I'm not as sick as I used to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abnel Posted June 1, 2011 Report Share Posted June 1, 2011 Hi Mggirl, sorry to hear you are not feeling well after having your blood drawn. Unfortuantely it was having my blood drawn that seems to have triggered my POTS in the first place. I had post viral fatigue syndrome in June 2009 after a virus, but 2-3 months after onset I had to do a fast overnight before getting my blood drawn to test for diabetes and that blood draw together with caffeine and doing yoga (lots of bending over) all in the one day seems to be what really set off my POTS symptoms. I don't remember ever having such severe symptoms with post viral fatigue until that trifector! I remember feeling quite weak and really strange straight after the blood draw, and I have never felt the same since.I did a standing tilt test a few months ago and was already dehydrated before this as I'd had had a one hour medical consultation prior to TT, then did the TT, then had my blood draw straight after. I felt absolutely awful after and had a major POTS flare up for a week until I started back on Florinef.I wish I had some advice regarding what to do to prevent POTS flare ups from blood draws, but I definitely think what you are doing with being very hydrated before going into do this is a very wise first step. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kluesyk Posted June 1, 2011 Report Share Posted June 1, 2011 I have a bad reaction to having blood drawn also. If it is more than 4 tubes of blood, I will have problems. I can feel bad for several days afterwards. Just try to drink more gatorade, water and salt. The last time they had me lay down on a table and I did better. Not so much immediate problems.I wonder if our displacement of blood is so bad that taking even a small amount of blood out sets off the body's alarms that we do not have enough blood and creates the awful symtoms we get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnesiumgirl Posted June 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2011 Big thanks to the four of you!It was majorly frustrateing because once when I was sick but my POTS wasn't bad yet I had about 15-20 tubes taken in one month, and my other symptoms didn't flare besides the normal, "wow, they just took alot of blood I need to eat something" kind of sick. yesterday was only four tubes and I had major hands and feet turn purple blood pooling just from sitting up in bed. If any of you are in the same kind of sitiuation right now, the salty food, gatorade, and water helped trumendsly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramakentesh Posted June 2, 2011 Report Share Posted June 2, 2011 yeah i can relate to this. I have severe arm and leg vasoconstriction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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