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Monday, July 11, 2011

intrigued

Today I got my safety labs done.  I go in every 2-4 weeks for routine blood work so my doctor can make sure my body is handling the treatment well.  Only once (actually my very first safety lab) did they call me and tell me to stop meds immediately because my white blood count was abnormally low.  They said it was pretty normal for that to happen and that after I got tested again the next week and those came back normal that I could start up again.

So I've had my share of "pokies" (as my eldest calls them).  But this time a very intriguing thing happened.  As he began to draw the blood my vein started vibrating.  The whole time (three tubes worth of time), my vein alternated between vibrating and not vibrating whether or not he slowed down the flow.  He said it hardly ever happens but basically the veins can be thought of as a series of pressurized tubes and before he inserted the needle and vial to collect the blood,  a tourniquet was applied to congest a part of the the "tubes" so they are full and congested now.  So when you pull the blood out of one of those pressurized veins, the pressure is released so sometimes it will vibrate as the pressure decreases.  Now THAT was easy to follow, wasn't it?  Anyway -- it made sense to me when he told me about it.  The pressure was causing my vein to vibrate.  It felt weird.  And he could feel it with his hand nowhere near my vein but on my arm.  Crazy stuff.

Has that ever happened to you?

3 comments:

  1. Very strange. That's never happened to me. I'll be praying that your test results are encouraging. I know you have been having a rough time, so this blood test is important.

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  2. That's never happened to me, either. But I have to go this week for my safety labs. I'll try my best, lol. Just kidding! I hope you're having a happy day today! XOXO,

    Alyson

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  3. No, weird! I'm glad he had an answer for it!

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