February 11 - Blood Draw

February 11 - Blood Draw

Got to the lab a little later then normal today, as I just couldn't seem to get myself out of bed and Levi was happily still sleeping, and they always say, don't wake a sleeping toddler, right?! By later I mean we got there at 8am instead of 7:45. We walked in to the waiting room, no line, no waiting, AWESOME. Went to sign in, uh oh.... Nice nurse isn't there. ok.. Deep Breath... Hopefully this will still go well. We waiting in the waiting room for much longer then I expected. Levi was a little crazy man, and didn't want to settle. Too much sleep maybe??!?! HAHA.

Wouldn't sit in his chair, but at least he was in it. Small victories?!

We finally got called into the lab and two nurses were ready to help. One we have seen before (the second nurse that used to help nice nurse) and another one we have never met. Levi set right down and put his little arm out like a good boy. They put the tourniquet on and started feeling around. They both poked his arm and neither could find the vein. Ok, trying to stay calm. Trying to keep Levi occupied and good. At this point we would normally be done, so he is reaching for the minion bandaid, saying "minion minion". I tell him they haven't poked you yet, relax. They ask to look at his left arm, I reluctantly let them see it, very few nurses have ever successfully gotten blood out of his left arm, I would say the number is less then 3. They find a vein that they like and act like they are going to start the draw, when the second nurse goes, "wait, what tube are you putting this into?" The other nurse says "The purple one" they both look at me and I say, "yup always the purple one", they then ask "dark or light purple" I look at them and go "that one right there, it always looks like that". The first nurse, says "nope, I wont draw until we get a pedi purple" UGH. So they take the tourniquet off his arm, take there gloves off, and call down to the main lab to get some pedi purple tubes up. They come up pretty quickly, but at this point Levi is starting to lose it from having to sit, and wants to go get his fish and leave. I am assuming that a pedi purple will come up and be the smaller tubes that we used to use. Nope, from the naked eye the tubes look identical except one has a dark purple cover, and the other has a lavender color. Are you freakin kidding me? We waited for a light purple cover?!?! They start the whole process over. She sticks him and misses the vein! UGH. But it was only one little tweak and she got it in and the blood came. Levi never made a peep at them. When she pulled the needle out, he wanted nothing to do with his minion, but did allow me to put it on. Then he was off to the treasure box. He did give high fives to the nurses, but wasn't waiting around any longer, I had to ask them a scheduling question, and he walked himself out to the waiting room without me. :)

I am so glad that we have a good little boy when it comes to blood draws. This twice weekly process could be much more stressful otherwise. :) I let him spend a few extra minutes looking at the "bath tub" aka fountain this morning before we left.

I did my customary start calling the home answering machine around 10:30. Nothing. Levi hadn't been feeling great the night before, and around 11:15 daycare messaged that he still wasn't acting like himself. They had gone outside to play and all Levi would do is sit in the snow bank. Jay and I talked and decided that we should call them to get numbers instead of waiting for them to call us as we weren't sure what was causing him to not feel well. (Plus due to family commitments, if we needed to do plasma we were really hoping to do it that afternoon and not Friday). Jay called Dr. V's office. And got waylaid by Receptionist S. With her normal snooty voice she said, "a nurse will call you" and when he asked when we were told "when they can". Ugh, it is very frustrating to have a receptionist determine if we can talk to the doctor or not. I love Dr. V and his office staff (nurses, residents, etc) but I could really use to have a different receptionist.

We finally got his numbers and they were 234. So they have gone up since Monday. We were very happy to hear that. :) Now to have a great weekend and celebrate Grammie and Grampa's 40th Wedding Anniversary!!