track marks on my elbow where your sweet head used to rest

[jwgh]

In case anyone was curious, and also to gratuitously gross everyone out, I decided to take a picture of my interior right elbow, or whatever the right terminology is for the part of the arm that medical people typically draw blood from.

There isn't nearly as much bruising as I expected, but it's still kind of gross, so beware!



The two most noticeable bruises were inflicted before the tech actually put the needle in, I think; he marked those two spots as possible places to put the needle. The top one is where he actually ended up putting it, and you can see some bruising spreading out to the right. Not pleasant, but I've had a lot more bruising, and in much more interesting colors, after giving blood in the past. My arm is still pretty sore, though.

I guess maybe the Red Cross shouldn't hire me as a spokesman, eh?

Comments

[cgoldfish.livejournal.com]

i think it's called the "ditch"

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

My new favorite phlebotomist told me that if they leave that much bruising (or really, ANY bruising), they're doing it wrong. I believe her because she NEVER leaves any bruises, whereas my old phlebotomist always left huge horrible bruises.

Wouldn't you be surprised, but the LJ spell-checker doesn't know the word "phlebotomist"? I hope I spelled it correctly.

[jwgh]

Yeah, one thing that giving blood regularly does is it gives you experience with a bunch of different phlebotomists with widely varying levels of skill.

So, yes, this guy was not very good, and there have been occasions when I have given blood and, the next day, you could hardly tell where the needle went in. Much more pleasant.

[tigresse.livejournal.com]

Yup, I was told the same thing.

[kerri9494.livejournal.com]

And I think it depends on the person, too. It seems like, no matter what, I always get huge bruises. When I went in to get my wisdom teeth out, I had about a four-inch bruise for days. When I was in labor, I had an IV, and it took 11 days for my forearm bruise (yellow, purple, and covered the entire forearm) to fade.

So I bet it's some combination of skill, and victim...along with the amount of blood taken out -- or the amount of time the needle is in, or something.

But I don't think I've ever not bruised, at least somewhat.