How Do You Recover From Getting Lots Of Blood Drawn?

[imapumpkin]

This past Thurs I had to see a hematologist for my von Willebrande's disease prior to my surgery. I knew they would obviously need to draw blood, but I did not know how much. However, I noticed the phlebotomist was pulling out a ton of vials and printing out several labels. The following ensued:

Me: "uhhh...how many vials is that?"

Tech: "Six........No. Nine."

Me: "NINE???!!!!...That's a lot, I hope I don't pass out..."

Tech: "I hope not either."

Me: "I have low blood volume. It's not a needle fear thing...it's a low blood volume thing"

Tech: *no response whatsoever*

She takes the blood. I am expecting to feel like total cr*p during and after. She finishes drawing blood and I only feel slightly lightheaded and a little weak. I have felt worse with only 5 vials. She gets me juice. My mother brings me my smartwater. I drink up and within ten min I am okay to go. This is astonishing as I was not very well hydrated and I had only eaten a bagel so far that day. I take three naps in total that day.

The problem is, ever since then my energy level which has been semi-decent lately is in the toilet again. My blood pressure seems to be staying around 114/70 during the day, but I still feel useless. I sleep 9-10 hours. I wake up and feel tired all day. I nap. I meditate, I fall asleep. I am taking Iron pills because I was borderline anemic in october/nov. I have been eating protein (including drinking milkshakes with muscle milk powder in it) but I still feel like a wrung out washcloth.

My surgery is on Thurs. They are going to be taking blood from me every day for 5-7 days of in-hospital recovery. I don't know how they deal with a person who has low blood volume from dysautonomia.

Does anyone else have a lot of trouble after getting bloodwork done? How do you help yourself recover and is there something I could be eating/taking (i.e STEAK) to help me recover from them taking 9 vials of my already depleted blood supply?

[Katybug]

Rest, hydrate, super salt, I eat lean red meat and other lean meats to make sure I get a good dose of essential amino acids.

[Dizzysillyak]

Hi ima,

I just wanted to let you know you're not alone and wish you luck on your surgery.

I've been trying different ways, inc eating rare steaks, taking mega b supplements, drinking fresh coconut water,

eating a ton of leafy greens, juicing, probiotics including kefir,

etc etc to counteract this too but haven't found anything yet. It always takes me 3 - 5 days to recover.

I can't handle ensure or boost but that may help.

I was wondering if your hematologist might be able to do for you via IV while you're in the hospital. Have you

discussed feeling so weak after blood draws with him ? I'd love to know what a hematologist thinks about

this.

Tc .. D

[cmreber]

Hi there!

I was a phlebotomist for three years before I quit to help my husband run our business (and right before I ended up getting sick). (Unfortunately the vWD test takes a lot of blood to run, though that doesn't make it any less awful for you and recovery after that much blood being taken! ) I know that we would sometimes get people in the hospital with severe anemia, etc. and they would have orders to draw "pedi" tubes (what we draw for infants) whenever possible. Many of the daily blood work they will probably be drawing (metabolic panels and cbc, etc.) do not require much blood to run the tests...at least at our lab they didn't (some instruments may be calibrated differently than others). Because of the vWD they may end up doing certain tests (like PT INR or PTT) which at our hospital did unfortunately require a full tube. I would talk to your doctor about putting in an order for the lab to draw minimum amounts if at all possible. For at least some of the tests this should be doable? On the plus side, you will probably have an IV which may help a little. Also, liver is supposed to have a ton of iron in it, and when I first got sick and had a lot of trouble with anemia, I added that to my diet for awhile. Also, some dried herbs, like dried Thyme are pretty high in iron. Also clams and other shellfish (if you're not allergic), as well as a lot of things others have mentioned.

Good luck with your surgery and wishing you a speedy recovery!