Craziest Test Ever

[furiousrose]

I had a nuclear med test - White blood cell count yesterday. Has anyone had this done?
I am awesome about tests, and procedures, calm and ready to go... but this one made me really uneasy several times.
First was the GIANT syringe of blood they took, and the nurse was struggling with it, and there were airbubbles in the syringe, and I got really nervous.
then they take the blood away for 2 hours, and separate the white and red blood cells, and then give me the white ones back.... not to cool with that.
I am not comfortable with them taking my blood out of my sight, and then giving it back, where is my guarantee that it was even my blood I got back... totally aware that the chances are low... but seriously. I didnt say anything to them.. but i was really uncomfortable. The whole test took 6 hours... 4 of those i sat in the waiting room, went for some walks, read over 100 pages in my book... and listened to a lot of music.
It was kind of relaxing, after spending so much time in my house lately
OH!
i got a good job, that I had been after for months! I start March2nd, so just a little bit more hanging out around the house left.

 

[jed]

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, nuclear med is freaky!!!!!!

i had some kind of nuclear med test done for my arthritus, syringe was this huge stainless steel thing and kept in a stone chest thingy!!! was bizzare.

oooooo, wifey just home with mcdonalds, time to go eat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wooohooooooooooo

 

[Guest]

Hi Rose.. wow, i've never had blood put back into me, had many armfuls removed though lol.

i would suggest that if you're ever worried about some procedure, you should tell them your fears and thoughts, no matter how silly you may think they sound - i'm sure the medical team have heard them before and will be able to reassure you.

hope the test results are good ones, and well done on the job!

 

[danman]

Fantastic news on the job. Good luck with it.

 

[furiousrose]

Thank you! It's a really great wage, and full benefits - including Massage and Acupuncture! and its a sit down job.. no more standing for 8-10 hrs a day.

I usually try to be as accommodating as possible when I have tests done.. I do talk a lot though to the nurses and doctors, mostly because i have to get out nervous energy somehow... it also helps that regardless if they looked at the age on my papers, everyone thinks I am about 16 and they always baby me.

 

[soupdragon69]

Hey Rose,

Yep have had that test done (when I was in hospital for 2.5wks summer 07 with a flare). Think it was called a White Cell Scan.

Was the same as you where they took 50mls of blood then came back with my blood having been spun out and just the white cells left. They "tagged" them to make them mildly radioactive and then I had to go for a nuclear medicine scan so long after they had been re injected again.

They were VERY careful in relation to identifying me and my blood etc. You dont mention whether you had the scan or not Rose..

If not, I am not sure what the purpose was. I was told that the whole point was for it to be able to track where the "tagged" white cells travelled to. This meant it showed up if there was any inflammation anywhere as white cells will gravitate to that area and the scan then shows it up.

Found it very interesting at the time and yes I was a bit warey about my blood going out of my sight but only to be returned later minus a few things and mildly radioactive.

The only reason there were air bubbles in the syringe is because the needle used to puncture your skin or the syringe may not have had the plunger fully depressed prior to withdrawing from your arm would have had a small amount of air in them. You can also end up with air if a needle is used to pierce the skin and then it is withdrawn to the point where it comes out of the skin by accident and then reinserted again to continue withdrawing. The point is the nurse was withdrawing the air away from you, (hence you saw air in the syringe), not giving it to you, so nothing to worry about at all on that front. Also may not have been a nurse Rose as for my test it was a member of the radiology team that did it all and not a nurse so they may not have been as proficient as a nurse or someone who takes blood for instance like Colt day in day out - hence their struggling.

Hope you get some results from it soon Rose.

Congrats on the job and hope it goes well too!!

 

[Colt]

Soup covered it pretty well. If you have questions PLEASE ask. Trust me, the large majority of medical workers love telling you all about their job. I let off a little mental cheer every time someone asks me a question because I get a chance to share with someone else what I do for 1/3 of my life.

As for blood leaving your sight there are VERY strict regulations in the US at least that ensure there is never a chance of giving someone the wrong blood because the wrong blood type can make you very sick and potentially kill you. But, with this specific test they are filtering out your red cells so the 'type' is gone and there's nothing for your immune system to react to.

The blood bank here is notorious for being strict to the point of insanity. They throw blood out for pretty much any reason. A week or so ago, for example, one of the phlebotomists was handing a blood typing tube to the blood bank worker and right after she let go she said 'Hold on, I need to initial that.' The blood bank worker immediately flung the tube into the trash and the patient had to be restuck. Forget that all the patient's info was perfectly laid out and the phlebotomist initialled the other 2 places, there's zero tolerance for mistakes on anything related to blood going into a patient.

As for the air, as soup said, it's no danger as long as it's on the opposite side of the syringe from your arm. It was most likely a radiology tech and they really should be taping the plunger before using a syringe. The syringe comes out of the packaging not fully depressed so you have to remember to tap the plunger down when you open it. A tiny bit of air in you isn't going to hurt you though. It takes a significant amount to cause problems. Especially if it's put in and then sucked right back out with the blood being drawn.

I'd be more concerned with the blood in that syringe clotting. (I don't do the nuclear med draws. They skip us and go right to the ultra-sound wielding stat nurse when they have a hard stick) They must be using a heparinized syringe, in which case I'm also curious to know how well that heparine gets filtered out and how much of a dose the patient gets when they put the serum with the tagged white cells back in.

 

[katiesue1506]

Doris... my special IV nurse just LOVES injecting me with air via my IV lines. She makes sure to tell me though that it would take some amount of tablespoons of air to kill me. THANNKKS Doris.

Everytime I get my Remicade and she starts the line, theres ALWAYS air in the line (not a ton) so I just got used to it and stopped saying anything about it. However oddly enough whenever someone else starts my lines, theres never any air... OH WAIT thats because they run the liquid in the line till the air is out.

 

[furiousrose]

i did have the scan... I left that part out, cause its the only thing that didnt creep me out. I totally know that the chances of mixed up blood are super low, its just the first time i have felt uncomfortable getting something done.
SO good to know about the air bubbles and what it takes to be concerned... I think she was an x-ray tech doing the blood... she didnt tape down the needle or anything. The reason the air was scaring me was not just cause it was in there, but because she kept struggling to get blood and was pumping the syringe.
It was in all a pretty cool test... find out all the results on Thursday, I'm excited to find out the results.
thanks again for all the well wishes
x

 

[Colt]

Pumping as in pushing it all out and then pulling back, or just pulling back to a more or less degree? If she's pushing the blood back in that's a super no-no. Especially if it's taking a long time the blood in the syringe is likely to have started to clot or if it's heparinized the heparin is being put into you which could be bad for you, but is mostly just bad for the amount of anti-coagulant in the syringe being off and not stopping the blood from clotting properly.

If she was just pulling the needle back she's just increasing and decreasing the amount of suction. You need suction to get blood out of the vein at any usable rate. But, too much suction will collapse the vein and seal it off thus you have to decrease the suction to let it open back up, or of course too much suction can blow open the hole that the needle is in and allow the blood to pour out around the needle into the area underneath the skin.

Also, as the blood fills the syringe that vacuum goes away so you have to constantly lead ahead of the blood and often we let go and let the plunger go back down to the blood to equalize the pressure. Then we can start again and make sure we're leading the blood by the amount we want. So, anyway, there's a lot of fiddling with the amount of suction being applied to get it just right.

If you are afraid a nurse or radiology tech or whatever is going to hurt you don't be afraid to ask for a phlebotomist. Most hospitals/clinics will have one that they can call in. We're specialists and we get requests all the time. If they don't have a phlebotomist on staff there's usually a stat nurse, IV team, or whatever that specializes in drawing blood and inserting IVs and is much more likely to do things right. It's no different from asking for a neurosurgeon to remove your brain tumor or a GI to decide how to treat your crohn's. Frankly, it's better that I go draw a difficult patient from the start than to have some nurse blow every vein in their arm and then call me. Besides, I could use the job security right about now.

 

[katiesue1506]

Well what about when Doris starts my IVs and then sticks a syringe in the line to pull out bubbles, but instead pulls my blood into the line, then pushes it back in my arm with that same syringe... is that a no-no? Doris makes me super nervous.

 

[Wiles]

I had that test (or something similar) a couple of times when I was younger. I think it was called an indium scan. Watching all the lit up dots on the screen was pretty neat.

 

[soupdragon69]

Katiesue,

What Doris is doing is wrong plain and simple!

It is extremely bad practice to insert a syringe into the line to take air bubbles out.

It is possible to have tiny air bubbles in a line - what we call micro bubbles (bit like you see on a glass of tap water that is left sitting for some time).

Anything bigger is not good/safe practice and if she were on the receiving end I bet she wouldnt be happy!

If she is unhappy about the size of an air bubble to the extent she is trying to draw them out after starting the infusion then she shouldnt have connected it to you until she had resolved the problem to begin with!!

Another point is that if she is drawing your blood back into the line then pushing it back into you she is encouraging infection to occur and the only thing I will say in relation to that is it is just as well the cannula is being removed on the same day within hours because to leave the cannula with continue to promote infection around its site. She is also giving you a "bolus" of the drug you are supposed to be having as an infusion which is inappropriate too and not correct administration of the drug you are receiving!

The risk of infection is greatly decreased because the cannula is being removed.

If you are ever unhappy about what she is doing TELL her to go away and get someone else!!

It sounds to me like she needs an update in Intravenous Administration and the risks and benefits!! Wouldnt do her any harm if you put a complaint in to be honest.

 

[jamie2462]

Hmmm....Ya I havent had that one done yet, but I would like to just tell em to keep the rest of it. I can make more. LOL Freaky. They've certainly taken enough blood, but I don't think I would be wanting it back once its out.

 

[Colt]

Soup is right, you need to talk to the doctor or whoever Doris' superior is. It doesn't sound like she should be doing the job she is. Maybe she can spend some quality time working a sitter room somewhere while she refreshes herself on proper procedure.