A case of IV evading, popping, rolling, disappearing veins
Monday, July 23, 2012 at 9:49AM 
From the time I checked in here late Saturday night until late last night, my IV caused lots of problems. The slightest motion in my left arm where the IV needle was planted right in the crook of my elbow would cause the IV machine to shut down and start beeping.
It hurt, too.
A young woman came in to put in a new IV. She found what she thought was a perfect vein in my left forearm and went after it. It hurt more than it normally does when they do this kind of thing. She thought she had it for a moment but then somehow she lost it.
So she gave up and I just kept beeping - although, for some unknown reason, not as frequently as before. Then, in the late evening as I took a walk in the hallway with Margie, the IV attachment started to leak.
I was getting my antibiotics through my IV. I needed it to work.
So nurse TJ came in with a student (top photo). She assured me she had put in thousands of IV's and they would get this one. She found what she described as an excellent vein on my inner left forearm. She had the student apply the tourniquet and they did the rubbing, scrubbing and thumping they always do for these kind of things.
Then the student went to work, sticking me painfully a few times but with no success. Then she went to do it, but before she could poke, she said my vein disappeared altogether. "The power of the brain," she explained.
She found it again and went after it with the needle, but it kept rolling away from her. She said it was like she was chasing my vein around my arm. Finally, she caught it. She inserted the IV needle, thought she had it and then it "popped." I am not certain what that means, but once a vein pops on an IV needle, that's it for that IV attempt. It will not take that needle back.
She tried again in two more places on both forearms with pretty much the same result. So they gave up, did some repair work on the leaking IV and got it to work again - for about two hours. Then it failed altogether.
Now they brought in Kathy - an upper-middle-aged lady who usually works as a pediatrics nurse and who has put many IV's into small children. Kathy studied the situation, ignored the advice of another nurse to go for a certain vein in my right forearm and went for the top
of my right hand. I kind of expected to get poked again and again, but she got it instantly (bottom pic) with no pain at all. I got back on my antibiotics. I slept reasonably well during the night and it did not cause the IV machine to beep even once.
Reader Comments (11)
That post was hard to read. Yikes. I"m sorry!
bill, you are pretty much going thru exactly what i went thru a few years ago after a had abscesses from a surgery 2 weeks prior. the veins rolling and popping thing. pediatric nurse brought in to find them, which worked for a few days. they were sticking me every 2 hours, changing arms back and forth. and they did that for 2 weeks while i was also on a full body flush of antibiotics. one hose going in my abdomen pumping antibiotics and one hose sucking it out. which means i could not get up and walk around at all. for 2 weeks. i almost went mad. one thing they did that seemed to help was they had this warm water bag thing that circulated on my arm that wasnt being stuck. seems that brought veins back enough to be stuck again. i hope you get better soon and get back to your work. i have to do this again in a month or so and i am not looking forward to it at all.
Bill I honestly can't bear to think what you're going through. I wish I could transport you to my medical center here in Boston. Not to sound condescending, but I could make sure you're getting the best of the best. I so want you to be healing now. Sending all the best thoughts to you and your family.
Between you, me, and the fencepost, I'd put the camera down while people are poking needles in me. You don't want to make people nervous...
My veins are the same way. I have O-neg blood type so I give blood often. I started warning people that my veins are deep a rolling just to give them a heads up. I might be intimidating the new ones, but the old pros seem to take note and things usually go smoothly. I remember once, I was admitted for an infections and the poor nurse tried every vein (I hate the ones in the hand because they hurt the worst) she finally gave up as I was being moved to a room and they were going to send someone else up once I got there. I remember riding the elevator with both hands dripping blood onto the elevator floor- that was the worst. I so appreciate the ones who have the knack. I though about taking candy kisses or something as a reward for when they get the needle in - I know I'm no picnic. It's good to hear from you today. I'm visualizing happy healing cells just livin' it up in your belly.
Bill, sending you a big (((HUG)))
Just wanted you to know that I am thinking of you, and wish I could make it all go away.
All I can do is tell you that you are loved, and there are many out here in cyberspace thinking of you, and wishing you the very best -- so many of us you don't even know.
Lordy. I think it must be time to tell the newbie nurses to go practice on somebody--anybody--else's veins. You've served your time in hell as a pincushion. I don't understand why anyone thinks the newbies will find your veins, if the veteran nurses can't do it. Tell them I said to go poke around on a grapefruit, and get back to you next month when, hopefully, you'll be far, far away from that place!
And God bless pediatric nurses everywhere who can get the job done when other mere mortals cannot.
Here's another set of good wishes coming your way today that true healing of all your miseries starts NOW, and that you turn the corner TODAY towards renewed, excellent health.
When I first met my husband, I was in nurses training and we were learning how to start IV's. The thing I first noticed was his beautiful VEINS!! :-) No, he didn't want to be a guinea pig! 53 years later I am so glad he had those wonderful veins. Of course, all the chemo turned them into lead pipes. Out of the many who poked him only 3 were able to get in! His chart had red letters on the front...difficult to draw blood! Little hint...a warm wet towel really helps bring them to the surface! I almost cried when the best phlebotomist retired! Mine are the same way, so can sympathize with you. If you hold your tongue just the right way, it helps too....keeps you from cussing in their face!
I'm so sorry you are going through all of this..wishing you a speedy recovery. I've been in 2 hospitals for back surgery and 1 surgical center for steroid shot in my back in the last 2 yrs and all of the nurses put the IV in the top of my hand..each one did it one the first try, the same with my husband when he had pneumonia. I didn't think they even did it in the forearm anymore. Don't let students use you for a guinea pig Bill, your paying the cost of real nurses not people in training. They tried that with me in therapy and it took twice as long to get threw it..the next time I went I told them no more students.
Alaskan Reader - I hope I didn't scare you too bad. I hate to make anyone uncomfortable, but I do want to give a bit of a feel for what I am going through and it is something to see how many of you have experienced something similar.
Annmarie - your ordeal sounds horrifying, worse than mine, and it makes me hope that the antibiotic regimen I am on, now oral, does the trick. I hope the one coming up is not as hard.
ManxMamma - I appreciate that thought and want the best care, too. I would note that there is healing power in the simple act of being able to look around and see Alaska all about me.
Debby, you must remember that I am a professional photojournalist with a talent for letting people forget all about me as I photograph them doing intense things. In this case, the nurse and student were not even aware I had taken the pictures until afterward, when I told them and asked if it was okay with them.
Dean - now I must say "yikes!" I am told the antibiotics makes the problem worse than it would normally be.
Edite - That hug felt good. I find myself only able to read at a snails pace, a very pages in a day, and I still have a ways to go to finish the book, but find it to be an amazing read.
Nancy - Your words help more than you can know.
Cuppahjava - yes, I was very nervous when I realized a student was going to do it and I don't think that under these circumstances I would allow it again. It did make a good picture, though, so it was worth it.
Mrs. Gunka - I have never heard of anyone getting together because of beautiful veins before but am glad it happened for you. So sorry about what your husband subsequently faced. So many stories to let me know how relatively easy what I have had to face so far has been.
lilli - Good advice, and that one in the top of my hand is the only one that didn't hurt and once in, was by far the most comfortable. I wonder if I am paying for all this, though. I don't know how I am ever going to pay for it.