Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Waiting Room

I really feel like I've been in the eternal waiting room lately. Not much has happened since my last post other than a lovely morning last week spent giving blood. I had to give 16 vials of blood. They had a whole list of tests that they needed blood for. DH only had 3 vials.

And I totally jinxed myself because I told him that after the pain I felt with the IV in my hand, this would be a piece of cake.

Well, my veins didn't think so. After the first 9 vials it seems as though my vein didn't feel like giving any more blood. So the nurse, who is really cool so I won't say anything bad, decides to move the needle around in my arm at which point I tried real hard to just go to a happy place and hope that it would all be over soon. That was a weird feeling.

Of course that didn't help so she lets me know that she has to try the other arm. No problem I say, how much worse can it get? So the next few vials of blood are just flowing smoothly until the last vial. Again, she says that no more blood is coming out. Really? Cause I thought the fact that I had now turned bright white would be an indication that there is no more blood. But I guess moving the needle around some more can find blood. Oh and that feels lovely, if you haven't tried it, next time you go to give blood, just ask the nurse to shift it around a little.

Well, she ties the tourniquet thing around my arm and she's almost trying to push blood out of me. I was OK, up until this point. I wasn't thinking about the fact that, like an idiot, I had eaten NO BREAKFAST, and that I would probably not be able to walk after this. She finally got the last vial and I was done. DH was up next.

I got up, walked to the waiting room and then the cold sweats started, followed by the weird loss of vision. You know, right when you are about to pass out. Except I wasn't passing out. Just getting real close to that point and then the reality of the needles and blood and everything kept hitting me. I didn't know if I was going to throw up or pass out. But I made it to the bathroom. It was so nice of them to carpet the floor too, because that's where I plopped myself down and went in and out of those nausea waves.

When I finally got up, I made it to the waiting room where my husband was already done, and I thought that I would be able to leave. We made it into the hallway and then I just sat down on the floor. I just felt the room spinning and had to go back inside for a better seat. They brought me something to drink, which they probably should have done before, and then made me lie down and they took my blood pressure. I had to wait there for about 20 minutes to get back to normal.

That was a week ago and I still have black and blue marks on my arms.

Tomorrow I go back for my two week visit after the hysteroscopy and my sounding. I'm not quite sure what the sounding will be. I'll report more tomorrow.

All this stuff is keeping me busy, but I really feel like this is taking forever. I've been waiting my whole life for this to happen. I'm getting a little impatient. But, you can't rush the schedule so I have to stop complaining.... :)

4 comments:

Joannah said...

Oh, my! That sounds like a horrid experience. They should have had some juice on hand for you. It sounds like you gave as much blood as you would have had you been donating blood, and they always give you juice and cookies after that.

You poor dear!

Jen said...

OMG!? That sounds horrible! My clinic gave me juice after my lamineria and I didn't give blood, I was just deathly white I assume...

Daniella said...

I'm sorry this happened to you. I agree that you should definitely have had some juice/food right after.
Waiting stinks - I just realized Sunday will be 18 months waiting for our daughter - I H.A.T.E. WAITING ROOMS :) On another note, I just did a post on mine and your favorite place CM - I kept chuckling when I wrote CM.

sara said...

Holy crap that is a lot of blood to give! I'm sorry that you had to go through that...you definitely deserve more than some water or juice for that! I think you deserve a nice shoe shopping trip, or perhaps a new purse. If I were nearby, that is what I would do!