A CT comedy, in 4 (or so) acts...

So I go in bright and early for my CT this morning. They go to start my IV and draw blood ~ and I warn the guy that I have crap for veins. I showed him where my best vein is ~ he says he really can't feel anything. Yep, that's normal for me... "Go ahead and give it a blind stick, 'cuz I KNOW the vein is there!!"

So he gamely tries ~ and gets nothing. Grrrrrrrrrr... And I won't let him use the left dorsum, because it's the only place they can get blood on me, and I don't want it to get all scarred up!
Now during all this, he finds out I'm a nurse, and that I work one block over... When he can't get the stick, and can't find another vein, I came up the brilliant idea to run over to work and see if someone there can get a line in! So off I go, armed with their special needle hub (to hook up to the machine that pushes in the contrast).

Fortunately, work isn't crazy busy, so I grab da boss and off we go. She tries first in my one good vein; she can't get in either (with a 24!!!) I give up and have her go ahead and try the L dorsum ~ success!!!

So back up the block I go ~ left arm out of my coat so I take no chances on screwing up the HL... mind you, it's about 23 degrees out!

Once I'm back, the guy tries to draw some blood out of it for the Creat. ~ no go!! We tried for something like 15 minutes; I did everything but standing on my head ~ no blood.
Scheisse!!!!

He ends up having to poke me in the R dorsum for the measly 3 drops of blood he needs to do the test... Sheesh!!! And of course, my Creat. was completely normal ~ I coulda told them that!

Now it's off to the CT room ~ me wondering whether or not the lock is even still good...
I'm all hooked up; he does a little flush with the contrast to make sure it's working, and thankfully, it is.
Prelim shots get done ~ no problem, so he does the big, machine driven push ~ son-of-a-B****!!!! ~ my hand is freaking killing me!!! I end up in tears while the push finishes and he shoots the final shots.

Oy vey!!! What an ordeal!!!

Now I can only hope that the CT shows something definitive about this pain, which is now happening all day (not just in the afternoon!)