Veins...etc....

[Forseegood]

Hi, know this is a slightly morbid question, but what do people do, having to get so many blood draws? how do they handle the vein question? In going to get blood draws, I'm seeing that I don't have the best veins...my skin is kind of creamy and rich as far as the complexion, and you can't see my veins very well, as you can with more light skinned, translucent complected people...do you see what veins you can use, then switch arms from one blood draw to the next? Does the skin heal well enough to use the same arm? Not the same vein.... if youre having to go every two weeks? or every one week if youre doing pcr's for the first 4 weeks as I'm trying to do....I'm probably not explaining myself very well...I'm just wondering how this works...particularly the healing question, have a feeling Im going to end up like a pin cushion...thanks!

[Mikkimoe]

Gee after all this gab I just realized that maybe I have unconsciously been scared to death to give myself a shot for all these years. I have always had my hubby do it (over 4 years of 2 shots per week) and I never did a single one myself. I was on a business trip once that was over a wk long and brought the shots with me...I remember trying to do it in my scrawny leg in the hotel room and I never even got close...think I may have had my first panic attack....the next day I got a nurse at the expo to do it.

But it is true that I have no feeling in my right hand and have had multiple hand surgeries so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!!!!

Glad my hubby is a keeper - now he'll be giving me 3 per week - too much fun huh?

[nygirl7]

I lost so much weight but then gainned back MORE. It sucked. I've never been anything except skinny and all of my clothes are now painful........painful I tell you!  The eyelashes were so very lovely - I don't know why we have to lose them so quickly!

I understand that vanity - it's perfectly normal if you ask me.  If not for it, we'd be a mess of a looking country you know?  ;)

[Forseegood]

NYgirl, all.....man, I'm a few pounds overweight (never in my entire life have I been overweight, and it does bug me, sorry for the vanity:) and the ONLY things I'm hoping for and looking forward to is LOSING WEIGHT and these thick eyelashes I've so often heard about...although one poster said he only got thick, long eyelashes on the bottom of his eyes! How weird would that be??? If I gain weight, you'll hear this crybaby back east!!!! lol

[nygirl7]

4C - save your hips for the Epo, I think that is where I did that shot too.  I tried to use the easiest least painless of them all because i too was a BIG BABY CHICKEN!  You will be so super surprized though at how quickly you get to be a pro at it all.  Really.  My mother came in one night while I was doing my shot and was laughing at me saying Deb do you remember your training class - you looked like you were going to pass out, now look at you!

It's true - it won't bother you at all after a while you can do it in your sleep.

Some say the stomach is the less painful place but for some reason it scared me.  The thigh didn't. Also I lost so much weight I would have had no where to grab on the stomach and so that was easier in the leg too.

[gauf]

I am a stomach man myself. (had plenty of padding to absorb the shock back then). It really did a number on my skin after awhile though, red, blotchy, itchy. I have a photo of it just after tox I may post. ( it WILL gross people out though. Nobody will want to tox when they see it) Hmmm.... maybe not then. The skin "pinch" method really helped make it painless. I had the starting trepidation at first, now I could do it while driving down the freeway!

[sfbaygirl]

You are just wishing you could squeeze aren't you? Ahh, that's okay...wish I could squeeze a few myself. LOL