Having blood drawn hardly ever goes well for me!

So the topic of my post today is getting blood drawn. Ever since I can remember getting any blood drawn for any reason, at any location all over the country, I've been told that I have small veins that are difficult to find. For years, I endured having someone poke me with needles trying to find that elusive vein that would produce blood. They poked, prodded, and worst of all, fished for the vein by moving the needle around in my arm without removing it. Always, it hurt, and usually I ended up bruised. Not a good experience, but I endured it because I thought there was no other way.

Until...We were living in Fairfax, VA and I had to have blood drawn for some reason I can't even remember. I had to go to a clinic to have the blood drawn, and you can imagine I was not looking forward to being a human pin cushion yet again. So I go in and tell the tech that was to draw my blood, a very nice young man, that I had small veins and that people always had trouble finding a good vein. This guy said something along the lines of "well, we'll take care of that by using a butterfly needle." I'd never heard of or seen a butterfly needle, but was truly impressed by how easily this tiny needle with "wings" went in and quickly found the vein producing the vials of blood that were needed. He told me that whenever I needed to have blood drawn I should always tell them to use a butterfly needle.

That experience was almost 20 years ago, and as you can imagine there have been many times after that where I've had to have blood drawn by many different technicians. Of course, I alwys tell whoever is working on me that I need to have a butterfly needle because of having difficult veins. Here's the part that just gets me everytime I go in to have blood drawn, about 9 times out of 10, the tech doesn't believe me and tries the standard needle. Sometimes I'll hear something about how they know what they are doing, and don't need someone to tell them how to draw blood. Sometimes they'll just ignore me and use the standard needle without saying anything. Today the woman that drew my blood, although being very nice, also did not believe me when I told her about the small veins needing to use a butterfly needle. She plowed on with the big needle in my arm, fishing around for the vein that couldn't be found. After I let out a small yelp when she was digging around, she finally gave up. She asked for the back of my hand on the opposite hand, got out a butterfly needle, and sure enough, first time was able to get blood and fill up the two tubes she needed.

So, what's with these technicians? Is it ego? Is it that they don't like someone else telling then how to do their job? Or is it a challenge for them (at my expense I might add!)? At any rate, I sure wish they'd get over it, and trust that I know what I'm talking about. It's not like I'm a teenager or something that hasn't been around for awhile!!! Argh!

We bought a new car (well sort of)!

On Saturday we went and picked up our 2002 Rav4, my new commuter car. It's really cute, and all 5 of us will fit in it if need be. We got a really good deal, and the insurance isn't too bad. Can't beat that!

2nd Annual Hands of Hope picnic

Well, as the title indicates, we had our 2nd picnic for the Hands of Hope Adoption and Orphan Care ministry on Sunday afternoon. I was a fun time. The weather was beautiful! We couldn't have asked for a better day. The kids all had fun, even my moody 15 year old daughter. Of course, that was because we told her she could bring a friend.

It was a small crowd, but everyone got along well and seemed to enjoy themselves. We had a few new families, and some that had adopted domestically, as we've expanded our ministry to include domestic adoptions.

I took both my camera and my Flip, but of course, I forgot to get them out, and hence no photos or video of the day. I thought afterwards that we should've had a group photo each year, but alas, I didn't think about that until long after the picnic was over.

I was not on the planning committee and wasn't last year either, but I think next year I'll suggest a few changes. Like the group photo I mentioned, and maybe some kids games to keep things going. DH suggested an icebreaker game to get everyone talking to everyone else. There did seem to be little groups of people that knew each other that stuck together. So we'll see. 'til next year.