Either the person doesn't know that, or they just wanted to make the image worse.

Either way, to me, it adds a nice touch of horrible.

Oooouch! ><

Well, you're lucky every time they at least miss your artery. 😅

Oh no, ouch! 😭

And yes, of course the experienced ones can fail too. And it also sounds like she wasn't all that professional about it.

I participate in clinical trials and one time, I woke up at around 5AM on the fifth and last day and my arm hurt like hell around the PVC. I checked the skin and it looked fine so I figured I probably didn't have to tell the staff, that if it could only hold out until early afternoon I wouldn't have to get a new one and I really didn't want to have to place a new one. They always bother me a lot and I really didn't want one in my right arm.

I couldn't go back to sleep because of the pain but I counted down the hours and tried to deal with it. At 7, a nurse tried to PVC and it worked fine.

At 9 was dose with very frequent samples after and... Suddenly it didn't work. The nurse tried to quickly replace it to not miss too many samples and failed. I was in so much pain that probably the stress made my vein withdraw, plus the drug they gave me was adrenaline, which probably didn't help.

So... Well, I can safely say that crying my eyes out in pain and fear in a hospital bed with three nurses and one MD standing over me, trying to calm me down and also trying to get a replacement PVC in place as fast as possible, was not my proudest moment. And trying to eat lunch with only my left hand while not wanting to bend my right arm at all wasn't great, either.

Now in this case the nurses were not to blame, but it has happened at other times that it hasn't worked and then I get pretty pissed when they give me an inexperienced nurse for the second try.

😅

I hate when I get an inexperienced nurse but I also feel really bad for them because it must really ruin their day to try and fail to find a vein and get some blood while the patient is clearly in pain.

So far never had one try to stab me like that though. 😂

Lol, that too!

*Shudder*

Yes.

For any kind of needle to be placed there - blood test, blood donation, IV fluids - the person will be sitting or lying down and the needle will be inserted into the vein alongside it, more or less parallel to the skin.

For things like blood sugar testing, you can use a device that just stabs a hole in the fingertip and makes your capillaries leak through the skin, but... That's the fingertip. You never stab the elbow.

But they don't stab like that, do they? I never remember them doing that.