I am looking for tips and stories about if/how you make a blood draw go better for your child from the lab and technician standpoint. It's not preparing and handling my daughter that I have questions about. We have a pretty good system. What I need help with is how to ask/tell the lab techs things without ticking them off. I'm asking because Friday's blood draw for her annual visit was one of the worst experiences in the history of all bad blood draws. And if the lab tech is doing a lousy job, all of my techniques with my daughter go out the window because she's 7 and once she loses it, we can't get it back! I am now on a quest to determine the proper pediatric blood draw protocol so that I can be a better advocate.
When we go downstairs to the lab in the professional building, we never know who we are going to get, but we have had several blood draws go very well there. I followed my usual routine there on Friday, which basically consists of asking for someone experienced in pediatrics. Apparently you can ask a tech if they are experienced in pediatrics, but if they say yes and it turns out they aren't, it's too late. We are in a hospital complex and there are several other lab locations available. Do any of you call ahead and ask for a supervisor? What, if any, conversations do you have with the technician to make things go smoothly? I felt the tech was doing some things wrong Friday but I wasn't sure enough to say anything. She put the tourniquet on and then left the room, for example.
Like most CF'ers we've had way too many experiences with needles: many blood draws from being in the Denufosol clinical trial, blood work for her annual visit, and IV's placed for surgeries and ER procedures. Maybe I'm making too much of it, but for crying out loud routine blood draws should go as easy and with as less pain as possible, especially knowing other things that might lie ahead (we've also been through a gastrograffin enema). So blood draws are pretty much the only thing where I have any hope of controlling the circumstances.
And if the tech Friday didn't follow proper protocol and shield the Vitamin A and E vials like I reminded them too (and they semi argued with me), and we need a re-do I will come undone. Grrrr.
When we go downstairs to the lab in the professional building, we never know who we are going to get, but we have had several blood draws go very well there. I followed my usual routine there on Friday, which basically consists of asking for someone experienced in pediatrics. Apparently you can ask a tech if they are experienced in pediatrics, but if they say yes and it turns out they aren't, it's too late. We are in a hospital complex and there are several other lab locations available. Do any of you call ahead and ask for a supervisor? What, if any, conversations do you have with the technician to make things go smoothly? I felt the tech was doing some things wrong Friday but I wasn't sure enough to say anything. She put the tourniquet on and then left the room, for example.
Like most CF'ers we've had way too many experiences with needles: many blood draws from being in the Denufosol clinical trial, blood work for her annual visit, and IV's placed for surgeries and ER procedures. Maybe I'm making too much of it, but for crying out loud routine blood draws should go as easy and with as less pain as possible, especially knowing other things that might lie ahead (we've also been through a gastrograffin enema). So blood draws are pretty much the only thing where I have any hope of controlling the circumstances.
And if the tech Friday didn't follow proper protocol and shield the Vitamin A and E vials like I reminded them too (and they semi argued with me), and we need a re-do I will come undone. Grrrr.