Last week a nurse stuck nine needles into an Alpha I know, and still failed to give him his regular weekly infusion. Then she called in her supervisor, who succeeded after five more tries.
That's 14 sticks. A record, in my experience.
This happened to a large man with good, prominent arm veins who'd been getting weekly infusions for years with few problems.
Don't let it happen to you. If your IV nurse can't manage an infusion without inflecting repeated pain and damage to your veins, here's the drill:
- Be kind. The nurse is as upset as you are.
- Don't be a pincushion. After three sticks, tops, ask the nurse to call in someone more skillful.
- After the nurse has gone, call the home health agency. Don't insult the nurse, or anyone else. Say something like, "I have to insist on a nurse more skillful in IV needle insertion."
- Keep doing this till you DO get somebody skillful. I once spent three months going through this process repeatedly.
- Nurses are quick to blame you and your veins: "You're dehydrated, your veins are wimpy, your veins are rolling." Don't believe them.
- Unless it's true. Most of us know when our veins really are small, hidden, or hard to stick. Even then, the best IV nurses are often able to get the job done with minimal fuss.
- If all else fails, talk to your doctor about having a port installed in your chest. It's a foreign body in your chest, and it has its own problems, but it takes very little skill to access a port.