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Blood draws, bruises and Newbies

  • Sandi
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  • Sandi Forum Moderator Diagnosed in 1998, currently in remission. Diagnosed with Lupus in 2006. Last Count - 344k - 6-9-18
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11 years 9 months ago - 11 years 9 months ago #42514 by Sandi
Blood draws, bruises and Newbies was created by Sandi
I had a CBC done 3 days ago, and now have this nasty bruise. I've had counts over 200k for about 8 years. I just wanted to point out that a bruise at the draw site does NOT mean that counts are low. I have also had hematomas at the draw site with high counts, so if you see bruising, do not panic and assume the worst. :)

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11 years 9 months ago #42516 by Katsim
Replied by Katsim on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
Ouch - not pretty! :-/

I used to try & guess my count depending on the amount of blood left on the cotton wool after a blood test. Never worked. Don't waste my time anymore.

:cheer:
Lowest count 1. Highest count 207 (ivig) Indium scan showed predominantly splenic destruction. No meds currently, just seeing how things go.

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass - it's about learning to dance in the rain".

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11 years 9 months ago #42520 by alisonp
Replied by alisonp on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
I might be kidding myself about this, but I think I can make a judgement about Dougies count based on the colour and viscosity of the blood sample

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  • Sandi
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  • Sandi Forum Moderator Diagnosed in 1998, currently in remission. Diagnosed with Lupus in 2006. Last Count - 344k - 6-9-18
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11 years 9 months ago #42523 by Sandi
Replied by Sandi on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
Ha, I can never look. I look in the opposite direction and sing "la la la la la la"...... Then I ask, "How many more tubes"?

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11 years 9 months ago #42531 by Joerg
Replied by Joerg on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
I never look when a sample is taken, but I think some day I have heart attack while waiting for the results.

I had a phase in which I checked the mirror for bruises whenever I walked past one and made guesses about the count. But that never worked and fortunately I could shake off that behaviour.

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11 years 9 months ago #42543 by Vdeutsch85
Replied by Vdeutsch85 on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
Waiting for the counts is so challenging. That minute and a half seems like hours.

I have been the opposite of Sandi. The blood draw did not bruise very much, but my counts were low.

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  • Sandi
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  • Sandi Forum Moderator Diagnosed in 1998, currently in remission. Diagnosed with Lupus in 2006. Last Count - 344k - 6-9-18
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11 years 9 months ago #42544 by Sandi
Replied by Sandi on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
I've had that happen too, no bruising when counts are down. It all depends on how well the needle goes in, not what the counts are.

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11 years 9 months ago #42549 by Winnifred
Replied by Winnifred on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
I have to watch when they take my blood. If I can't I start to panic! Oddest thing! If I watch them blood draws do not bug me. If I can watch IV's do not bug me! But come at me with a shot and I can run faster than a baseball player stealing second!

That is the problem with this ITP stuff. Doctors worry us with the comments about low numbers and bleeding/ bruising. So when a bruise appears people panic. Your right though Sandi you can't know what the count is by looking at bruises!


My doctor now wants me to have blood work done to check why when I was at 4 last time I had such little bruising. One time i'm black and blue all over bleeding constantly at that number and another time I'm not. No rhyme or reason!

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11 years 9 months ago #42550 by poseymint
Replied by poseymint on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
Winnifred- How does your doctor propose to figure that out?? I'd be very interested in his methods and conclusion!

Re: blood draw bruises- I used to think I could predict counts, but now I think that a lot depends on the skill of the person with the needle.

Something else weird- For years I mainly my got bruises on my shins. Then 2 years ago I started getting them on my forearms and none on the shins. ?? That makes no sense to me- had to start wearing long sleeves. And like you I've had a count with bruises and same count nothing. As I've mentioned before, I tend bruise in the teens-20s but when way low like 4K- all bruises and petechiae go away.
very mystifying :silly:

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11 years 9 months ago #42552 by Winnifred
Replied by Winnifred on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
He's running a diff. Plat. Which I think is a differential platelet test. Best I can tell since I sold the manual I had is he is checking their size and whether they clump.


He wants to find a reason why wasn't bleeding severely when my last platelet count came back at 4,000.
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11 years 9 months ago #42554 by eklein
Replied by eklein on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
Poseymint, interesting puzzle why you started getting arm bruises. I bet it is something physical that changed - like, a door you had to start pushing with your arms. Or someone new in your life who has a habit of grasping your arms. A new piece of furniture that gets up against your arms.
Erica
And she was!
Diagnosed May 2005, lowest count 8K.
4/22/08: 43K (2nd Rituxan)
10/01/09: 246K, 1/8/10: 111K, 5/21/10: 233K
Latest count: 7/27/2015: 194K
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11 years 9 months ago #42559 by Katsim
Replied by Katsim on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
Posey - I sometimes wonder if I bruise at contact when my counts are ACTIVELY dropping - but not when they're stable. Even at very low counts. My haemo told me that when counts are stable other parts of the blood can compensate for low platelets. Just a theory :-)
Lowest count 1. Highest count 207 (ivig) Indium scan showed predominantly splenic destruction. No meds currently, just seeing how things go.

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass - it's about learning to dance in the rain".
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11 years 9 months ago #42564 by poseymint
Replied by poseymint on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
yes, there is the clotting cascade. my eye doctor explained to me that there are many chemicals involved in clotting, so you can pull one piece out (platelets) and the blood will still clot- maybe take a bit more time but a smart system as you aren't dependent on just platelets.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coagulation

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11 years 9 months ago #42568 by Winnifred
Replied by Winnifred on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
Horror memories of nursing school lol clotting cascade all the factor 8 12 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

That was my part of a final presentation spent days weeks learning the process so I could spend 30 seconds mentioning it a paper. (we had to be prepared to answer questions from the teacher) All that work and she never asked any questions!

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  • Sandi
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  • Sandi Forum Moderator Diagnosed in 1998, currently in remission. Diagnosed with Lupus in 2006. Last Count - 344k - 6-9-18
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11 years 9 months ago #42571 by Sandi
Replied by Sandi on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
I've been told that many doctors don't even understand the clotting cascade, so I'm sure it's that much harder for the layperson.

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11 years 9 months ago #42575 by SteveG
Replied by SteveG on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
I'm lucky in that I'm not too fussed by needles and blood tests, which stood me well in the last couple of weeks since my diagnosis. I have gotten used to daily blood draws as well as the cannula for the IVIG treatment.

Most of mine have been fine but early on (Tuesday 8th) the nurse had issues getting blood out and persisted to keep trying which left my left arm looking in a pretty sorry state. I was a bit freaked at first by the size of the bruise, but I was as zero platelets which I guess explained it.

Here's how it looks now.

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My other arm which I've asked be used for almost every other draw has stood up much better.

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  • Sandi
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  • Sandi Forum Moderator Diagnosed in 1998, currently in remission. Diagnosed with Lupus in 2006. Last Count - 344k - 6-9-18
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11 years 9 months ago #42577 by Sandi
Replied by Sandi on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
I'm the same, can't use my left arm much for blood draws any more. I usually use my right, but decided last week to try the left again. No problem with the needle gong in, but it left a mark.

For those of you who don't know this: you can ask for a butterfly needle if you are getting frequent blood work. It is a very thin needle that is much easier on the skin.

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11 years 9 months ago #42579 by alisonp
Replied by alisonp on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
Steve, when my son gets a blood test he just has a thumb prick and it seems to work perfectly well for the purposes of counting platelets. Its a whole load less painful and rarely seems to produce any sort of bruise. You could try asking at the hospital if they would do this rather than using a needle - I don't really understand why they always use this method for kids but not for adults.

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11 years 9 months ago #42587 by SteveG
Replied by SteveG on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies

alisonp wrote: Steve, when my son gets a blood test he just has a thumb prick and it seems to work perfectly well for the purposes of counting platelets. Its a whole load less painful and rarely seems to produce any sort of bruise. You could try asking at the hospital if they would do this rather than using a needle - I don't really understand why they always use this method for kids but not for adults.

I didn't realise that might be an option so will mention it at some stage. Right now they are monitoring various other blood test levels so I guess want to have the full set of tubes to run those and keep a proper eye on me.

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  • midwest6708
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11 years 9 months ago #42599 by midwest6708
Replied by midwest6708 on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
Over the years, long before my ITP, the veins in my arms gradually disappeared. Phlebotomists would insist on multiple attempts at digging them out. My husband had been having draws from the backs of his hands around that time. At my next draw, I requested one of the very prominent veins on mine be tapped. She was reluctant and tried to talk me out of it. Said it would be too painful. I insisted and found it was not painful at all (to me). I've allowed a few attempts from my arm since then, but it always ended badly. It won't be any other way for me than hand draw using a butterfly needle from now on.

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11 years 9 months ago #42602 by Ann
Replied by Ann on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
Alison it's odd about the thumb pricks because to me they are incredibly painful. I had one done for a glucose measure and hated it. I would never do them out of choice. They are also supposed to be less accurate platelet count wise but I don't know how true that it is.

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11 years 9 months ago #42621 by alisonp
Replied by alisonp on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
Ann, I have heard that tests based on thumb prick blood are marginally less accurate too - tending to underestimate the platelet count. Children's hospitals/wards always seem to use thumb pricks for FBCs though, and you wouldn't think that would be so if they were generally more painful. But, I think Dougie does reckon it hurts more with one colour of the instrument that they use to do it than with the other - off the top of my head, I think he prefers the purple one.

LOL - I am a real baby about needles for myself, so if I ever need a blood test in the future, I am going to ask for a thumb prick! :P

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11 years 9 months ago #42641 by Vdeutsch85
Replied by Vdeutsch85 on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
I will third that. I hate thumb pricks. Do a vein puncture on me any day of the week. My heart goes out to diabetics who constantly have to do that. I think when they do that they are potentially squeezing and killing platelets. I think the purple one is a small needle where the blood goes directly in the vial rather than going through a tube into a vial.

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11 years 9 months ago #42643 by Joerg
Replied by Joerg on topic Blood draws, bruises and Newbies
The hemo I go to has two different nurses taking the sample.
Both use butterfly needles and to my untrained eye both do the same thing.
The results are very different. One stings painless (almost) and you hardly see anything afterwards. Taking a sample with the second nurse if more painful and always leave a bruise.

I have two veins on each arm which they can use. One on each arm is very obvious to see, but I asked them to rotate thru all four to reduce the scars to a minimum.

Cheers,
Joerg

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