Electrocuted while having blood taken!

Never had that happen, although I have at times noticed different levels of pain from being stuck with needles.  The ones that hurt me the most were the IV needles that were stuck in my hand.

 

On Friday I am getting my thyroid biopsied and I will have a needle jammed into my neck.  So I will have to see how that compares.

 

Was the phlebotomist sprayed with your blood splatter?

She likely struck a nerve, literally. It happens everything runs relatively close together. Had the same thing happen...damn it hurt!!  It is just one of things that happens on occasion.

Yes, she got a bit spattered and glad it makes sense she hit a nerve.  Yowzer!  

 

While she got a good vein, and she gets credit -- I usually ask for hand. It's a quick pain, versus them hoeing around in my arm, in out and all around trying to fish for a vein. Now THAT hurts!

Yikes. I wouldn't be surprised if you're bruised tomorrow. 

 

I actually prefer the the hand but they always shy away from that unless they have to. 

Nope, that would be a first...never heard of it before either...

We are all definitely originals!

Sharon

Yeah, likely a nerve. 

 

And FWIW, I've been a nurse for 21 years and 99% of the time, in my experience, patients HATE hand blood draws.  They hurt more than median cubital sticks.  However, *I* generally stick where I know I'll get the best chance to hit a vein on the first stick. However, I work in the ICU and do part time at our cancer center: 2 places where people have the most difficult veins to start with (due to harsh treatments or just being super ill or getting stuck all the time).

 

 

It sure sounds like the reaction I had when I first tried acupuncture!  My guess is that a nerve was involved!  Ouch!

Yep, I think she hit a wire-- and it had 220!  I hope it doesn't make me jerky next time!

I am laying odds that the next time you have blood drawn you will have to be told, at least once, to stop fidgeting.

 

Unless you are going to the same facility and they remember you, you should probably share this experience with them and possibly they will avoid sticking you in the same area.

 

A lot of people don't like talking to or communicating with technicians, thinking they will become distracted from the task at hand. But I believe the more communication there is, the better, for them and for you.  I ask a lot of questions and discuss whatever issues I have had with the procedure that is being attempted.  When I went for my very first cardiological stress test, I asked the technician if anyone had ever dropped on the treadmill from a heart attack or some cardiac event.  She confirmed that it had happened, and that is why there was an ambulance in the parking lot behind the facility.  A lot of people don't want to know the possible downside or risks with any particular procedure.  I believe that information is power, and lack of information = lack of power.  Of course, this particular event was likely unforeseeable and sort of a freak occurrence that probably will not happen again.

I never had that happen to me but the nurses are always telling me when ever they try to stick a intravenous in me that my veins are tough to find.  One time they tried so many times to find a vein I told them to just forget it. 

Yup, had it happen a few years ago when a tech hit a nerve while trying to give me an IV. At least the tech with you only got a few blood splatters! I hit mine -- no lie.  To be fair, I am really hard to stick, they hadn't warned me I needed an IV so I was really nervous (making my veins go into hiding even more than usual), and they had already stuck me unsuccessfully twice. When he hit that nerve it was exactly like being electrocuted. There was absolutely no thought process whatsoever; despite the two nurses holding me down I swung my other arm immediately and connected with the tech's cheek.

 

Thankfully he was moving away to get rid of the needle so I did not actually hit him too hard... 

 

For about 18 months after that I had numbness and tingling off and on extending from the injury site (just above my wrist) down through my thumb. No fun.

 

Let's hope it doesn't happen to you again!

 

Gin

Ah, great that people understand each other on this board.  Electrocution, I tell you!

 

Yes I also experienced electric shock.  I was being sedated for a scope couldn't find vein tried top  of my hand and I almost jumped off the table.  I had tingling in my hand all day.  I now refuse to have a needle put in my hand.