I have to check my glucose levels several times a day and my skin just seems to know when that ***** is coming. I run my fingers under hot water and then hurry to get the sample. It works every time.

Interesting post. I thought I was the worst 'stick' or person to start an IV on. Since I was never sick until I was diagnosed I really do not know if it is connected. I do know that I have been stuck so many times several of my good looking veins have scarred and simply 'blow'. I have also been cnulated sveral times for TPN. I have rarely been able to keep an IV for more than 24 hours.
When I have to have blood drawn I usually insist they use a 'butterfly' needle and the can ususally get right in my hand.

Before I had UC my viens weren't too bad. but after a couple of years of prednisone (high doses) and what seems like hundreds of IVs going bad, my viens are completely shot. The nurses all say the same thing: my viens are tiny and wirey and my skin is very tough and thick. I'm a nurses worst nightmare now!

Seems like my veins know when there is a needle lurking and they all retreat and hide...

I have tried the hot compresses, being 'smacked' around, keeping the heart rate up, etc but no matter what I do most nurses aren't able to find an IV site very easily. Even going for blood has become a chore.

The only thing that saved one of my viens was a PIC line when I had my first surgery...

I can totally identify!
Before my first surgery/hospitalization I was never too difficult a stick. I didn't like being stuck, but my veins were okay and i had no diffculties or fears associated with getting blood drawn.
Now, it's horrible. They can never get a vein and I can't supress total dread every time. Being in the hospital is a nightmare, i see the person coming and I want to hide.
I don't know what's worse my veins or my childish reactions to getting them drawn.

You can add me to the list of bad veins post UC.. before UC they use to say Oh you have GREAT veins this is going to be easy... I went in 2 weeks ago for a bronchoscopy and the first nurse didnt even try .. she went straight to someone else to stick me and he still had to search.

They told us the veins eventually would recover; but even though it has been 6 years since the last of his 5 abd surgeries and 8 since being on TPN for over four months, Thomas is still a hard stick. Some doctors/nurses can get a vein, others can't. When he went in for pouchoscopy a year ago, they had to use gas and take him into the OR to get an IV in.

A year ago I wouldn't have known if I was an easy stick or not. Then I started getting Sick and was told I was a dream to put an IV in, easy as pie. Now, I went in for a CT scan a few weeks ago, when they were putting in the IV for the contrast I went through 3 nurses and was stuck 8 times. 2 by the first and second, 4 by the third (its a miniature hospital and she was the last one available). 21 years old and my veins are already ruined!

The only other thing I can think of that helps takes a lot of work: lots of exercise and lower body fat.