10 Needlesticks Later...

It's been a very long day. Yesterday evening we went down to Georgia (sounds like the title of a song). I had an appointment at the Fibromyalgia/Chronic Fatigue Clinic this morning. I need to get a grip on this problem. I have several issues right now that aren't going to get better without some help and I especially need more energy. I've got things I need to be doing!

Anyway, I woke up early, in plenty of time to get to the clinic. We started off in enough time... but a sign lead us astray and we were a little late getting there. Most medical offices that wouldn't matter. With this one it does. They keep to their time slots and the doctor only sees you during your allotted time, period. If you're late, too bad. You just lost some of your time with the doctor.

The bad part is that you pay for time you didn't actually get to use talking with the doctor, However, since it's been a year or so since I was last there, it didn't matter so much as far as formulating my treatment plan. That may sound counter intuitive, but what I'm doing is close to starting over. I know the basics, so that helps, but they needed new lab work to know what to do next.

I knew that, so I didn't take my thyroid medicine or eat breakfast, so they could get the fasting labwork. Lots and lots of blood for lots and lots of tests. Something like 20 tubes of blood.

Getting the blood out of me and into the tubes was a problem. That's the 10 needlesticks later part. I look like an ad for a drug user, but no drugs people. Just lots of bruises from veins that kept 'blowing out'. My left arm is the worst with 6 punctures and bruises. They'd get a couple of tubes worth of blood and then the flow would stop. Stick another place and try again. Then try two or three places for an IV... sigh...

I told them if they didn't quit sticking me, when I took a drink I'd leak all over like a cartoon.

At any rate, the blood was finally drawn and all the vials they needed filled up, I got my IV meds, and tonight I'm one very tired Tish.

And Jess did all the driving!