So...I am scared of needles and have rolling veins, but make it a point to donate blood every 3 months. The reason? My youngest was premature and spent a month in Intensive care, thankfully, she didn't need a transfusion but I would like to think the blood would be there if she did. Because of this, despite my fear, I donate.
/background.
Now on to the bad service. I went to do my tri monthly donation, when I was having my temp taken and they were testing my iron I made it a point to let the nurse know about my fear and my rolling veins. She said it was not a problem, that they would be able to catch the vein and would cover my arm so that I can't see it. OK.
We sit and they prep me for donation. She puts up the cover and tells me when she's about to stick me so that I don't flinch. Great so far. She missed the vein. Not so bad in and of itself but then she said in a very exasperated tone, "why didn't you tell me you have rolling veins?" Um...I did.
I tell her to try again. She moves further down my arm and tries again. She missed the vein again. She says not to worry she knows what to do. She then grabs two butterfly needles, which I don't see due to the cover, she says just breathe. Then I feel a needle enter my arm. Before I can even ask if she got the vein I feel another needle enter my arm next to the first. I move the cover and she has the butterfly needles set up in a way to "hold" the vein in place while she tries a third time to stick me with the other needle. I jerked my arm away from her, butterfly needles still inserted, and said someone else needs to draw my blood or I'm leaving.
She became very huffy with me saying that this was the best way to stop my vein from rolling. Um...just no.
Her supervisor came over and said he would take over. He removed the two butterfly needles and apologized for the nurse. I calmly told him he had one chance to catch the vein and if he missed I wasn't donating that day.
He missed. I calmly thanked him and asked him to remove everything from my arm because I was leaving. They became very upset with me and started telling me that by donating I could save three lives and by not donating I was as good as killing inocent babies. I burst into tears. At this point my cell rang and it was my mother. As soon as I picked up she knew something was wrong. I explained it to her and she was able to give me the strength to just leave.
I felt bad about not donating but I couldn't let them stick me again.
The worst part.
When I went to a different donation center a week later, they had flagged me as unable to donate due to a recent tattoo. That wasn't true, so then I wasn't able to donate for an entire year. So there went 4 donations for the year because of that one center.
I don't go to them anymore, but I think about them every time I donate, today was my donation day, and now I have this very lovely community in which to share that story.
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