Needling
Posted by Gypsy on Jul 29, 2005
Why do military medics completely ignore everything patients tell them?
I’ll start with a little back story. My veins are crap. There are always problems with them when I need to have blood drawn and I’m always stabbed at least twice. I don’t know what the problem is, but most of the time either the vein collapses or completely moved when the needle gets near it. Because of this, most of the time I can get them to just start off with the tiny butterfly needle (it’s the one with the long thin tube on it that is usually used for little kids).
So I go to have blood drawn this morning and, as usual, I warn the guy before he even starts. He tells me it’ll be no problem and he’s sure the regular needle will be fine. He proceeds to search for a vein, making me pump my fist on this foam apple while he cuts off circulation and taps my arm. He does each arm twice before finally choosing one.
When he goes to draw the blood, the vein disappears before he even gets the needle in. So he goes to the other arm, finds the vein he wants, sticks the needle in, pops on the vial and nothing happens. No blood filling the tube or anything. He’s missed the vein. Instead of taking the needle (the BIG needle) out and trying again, he decides to keep poking around in there for it. He finally gives up when another medic comes into the room and sees he screwing it up.
So the other guy decides he’s going to try it. He grabs my other arm, ties the rubber thing, finds a vein and sticks me again (with another BIG needle). This time, he also misses the vein, chooses to search for it, finally finds it and fills up the tubes. I’m usually not a baby about needles, but this hurt.
And to top it off, I now have bruises on the inside of both my elbows.
You know that feeling with you have to throw up but can’t…
Posted by Gypsy on Jul 29, 2005
So I have spent the last few days dealing with random bouts of nausea. It’s mainly been happening at night. I’ll be sitting on the couch reading or watching TV and suddenly my mouth will do that thing where all this saliva suddenly appears and I think I’m going to throw up but I don’t. I wish I would, I think it would make me feel better.
Anyway, I haven’t been thinking anything of it because it only happens at night and eventually passes. But it happened again this morning. I was driving to work from the gym and almost had to pull over because I felt so sick. I grabbed a plastic bag and put it on the passenger seat just in case.
Now I’m starting to get a little worried about it. I put “random bouts of nausea” into Google and got all these pregnancy Web sites. I can’t be pregnant. We use double protection. Hubby and I have talked about it but we aren’t ready to have kids. Besides that, he isn’t going to be home for the next 8 months. I don’t know. I’m going to take a test, just in case. Hopefully I’m not and it’s just some sort of weird bug.
Update: Ok, I’m definately not pregnant. :D
Tattoos 8 & 9
Posted by Gypsy on Jul 28, 2005
So, I got two new tattoos a little over a week ago at a Tattoo Expo. With tons of artists to choose from, I figured I’d be able to get a pretty decent one. Well, $450 later, I had two. Originally a masquerade mask, I had it split in two, putting one on each forearm. It looked pretty cool, almost like two colorful birds looking at each other. I was very pleased when I left. So much so that I left a $4o tip.
This is what they looked like when they were done:
Flash foward to 10 days later. It looks like ass. It didn’t heal well, either because me or because of him. This is the eight time I’ve gott a tattoo done, so I know how to take care of one. I really don’t understand what happened. The outer edges healed fantastically, but the inside areas scabbed over real bad. The left one looks like pink ink bled into the whole thing, all the detail from the inside is gone and it’s lost all it’s luster. I keep hoping in a few days will be ok, but it’s not getting any better at this point. The right one has also lost all it’s detail, but as bad. I’d show you how they look, but they are so awful I don’t anyone to see them.
Ultimately, I’ll probably have to go somewhere else and get the whole thing done again. Which sucks as it will probably cost me a few more hundred bucks. If I didn’t already have other tattoos that have healed so great, I would never get another one again. But this is the first time this has happened, so as long as I can get them fixed, I’ll be happy.
Time difference
Posted by Gypsy on Jul 27, 2005
So my husband left Monday for training before deploying to Iraq. Being apart isn’t new to use. We’ve been married 22 months and have only lived together for the past 8. By the time he returns, we’ll have spent only a third of our relationship living together and have missed our first two wedding anniversaries. I don’t recommend dual-military marriages.
But just because we are adjusted to being apart doesn’t mean we like it. Since he’s training on the east coast, we don’t get to talk at all during the day. By the time I wake up for work, he’s already off and training, by the time I get home from work, he’s about to go to bed. It’s going to be even worse when there’s a 9 hour time difference.
