I am so sick to death and passed my wits end with Quest Diagnostic and all corporate chain blood drawing centers I can barely contain my disgust. So, when I found out I needed blood work done, I was less than enthused about the idea since my veins are in such terrible shape at the last three times I needed it ended in failure. But as it turns out, my boyfriend who I have repeatedly shared needles with has Hep C.
The first day I went, I had a girl who was clearly very capable, but like the MRI guy, was also clearly uncomfortable with the fact that she had to stick me so many times. Kind of a funny thing to note, they were both clearly Asian immigrants and both clearly had hearts of gold and just didn’t want to hurt me. But she was tenacious and she took my advice and it was the only time during this whole ordeal that we actually did get blood drawn, it just wasn’t enough blood to do a full test. After a while, she even gave me the needle and let me do it myself. Over the course of an hour or more, we got a significant amount of blood. She would take a turn, then I would. Then a patient would come and I’d rest with a hot pack on my arm and we’d try again. I really thought we were going to get it done. That is, until her boss came in. As sweet as she was, my situation had clearly pushed her to her limits and when her boss came in, she was immensely relieved to hand me over to someone more capable. Unfortunately, her boss was not as patient and had no tolerance for letting me do it myself. I feel bad, because I think I got her in trouble when he found out. But I didn’t know he would react that way. Once he heard the whole story, he said “Well I’ll stick you one more time. But we have rules about this. We can’t stick you more than six times and it looks like you’ve clearly had more than that.” He tried one more time in a spot she had already attempted, despite my protests and told me I had to leave and to go to another Quest that had more experienced phlebotomists.
Well, that same guy runs both Quests downtown. So they all follow his rules. But, I need this bloodwork done, so I went over there a couple days later. And sure enough, he’s there. He watches me like a hawk the whole time, afraid I’m going to rip the needle out of the girls hand and gab it on my own arm, no doubt, and after six attempts he kicks me out. I go back again a few days later. This time he’s the phlebotomists on duty. It was like he was accepting not to get it done. He went through the motions, gave it 6 half-hearted attempts and I was out of there in under 10 minutes. Now I’m pissed. I’ve been three times, I’m not getting anywhere with these guys, nobody is skilled enough to handle a patient with problem veins. They don’t have any needles smaller than a 25 gauge. They won’t go anywhere but the arms. And they only give it six attempts before kicking you out. But I had heard there was a good phlebotomists at a Pasadena Quest. I made an appointment at that location for this past Tuesday. This time, I’m really hopeful. I’m psyching myself up for actually getting it done. I should mention, this entire time, I’ve stopped IVing in my arms. I’ve haven’t touched them for weeks now, in hopes that it would give them a better chance at finding a good vein. I’ve even resorted to IMing when necessary. So I’m taking this very seriously and trying to do my part as well. I’m not spending hours in the morning digging around trying to find a vein, making it futile for any phlebotomist to get any blood. I’m really trying to make this as easy as possible.
So I show up at the Pasadena location and I’m the only patient there. I’m nervous, but as I said, hopeful. When I get in the room he asks me what arm I think he should try. I give him my right arm and tell him that the best bet is probably going to be the vein running down the back. He ignores me and starts poking the main vein in the crook of the elbow. Well, I have really bad nerve damage there. If a needle goes in that area anymore, it’s like 1,000 bolts of lightning surging through my body and I literally convulse. I tell him this, but he wants to try it anyway. Within 2 second of the needle going in, I’m convulsing. And he asks, “Do you want me to pull it out?” No, this is cool. You shouldn’t have a probably getting blood while I’m seizing in the chair, right? I mean? What the fuck? So he pulls out and looks at my arm. Then looks at the other one – only the two main veins in the elbow crooks again – mind you. He mumbling, Oh, I don’t know. I don’t see anything. I don’t know where I can go on you.” So I mention again, “I know that blood can be drawn from the one on the back of my right arm.” He looks at it and say “Oh, I can’t go there. You’re going to have to go somewhere else. I can’t do you.” What? One attempt? In a vein you knew wouldn’t work and you kick me out?
I’m just so frustrated with Quest. They’ve taken over an entire market. Put all the ma and pop shops out of business, most doctors don’t even do in house blood work these days. They’re run like a brain dead corporation, with their stupid 6-attempts only rule. That’s for the protection of the patient. If you’ve got a patient like me who needs more than six attempts and does more than 6 attempts a day on my own, and I’m saying I don’t mind, do more than six. They would be perfectly willing to make an exception for “corporate procedure” and do whatever it takes to get my blood work done. Period. I want to walk in there and not walk out until the vile is completely full. Instead they act like they don’t have the time, they’re just too damn busy for me (huge eye roll) and pass me back and forth like a hot potato between locations, pawning me off to the next guy just so they don’t have to do something that’s hard. I think they’d be perfectly fine doing that for the rest of my life without anyone ever getting the job done. Where is the sense of duty, the work ethic, the patient empathy, the pride in work? They could care less that I have Hep C and will eventually die if I don’t get treated. And I can’t get treated without their help. I know that’s extreme and I’m a long way from dying. It may be extreme, but at the core, it’s also the truth. In addition to their total lack of care or customer service, 99% of their locations aren’t equipped to handle anything more than urine test and blood work for the easiest of patients. I think it’s a stupid rule that I’m not allowed to attempt it myself while supervised. I mean I do this 6 or 8 times a day sometimes on my own and am always successful. But whatever, I’ll won’t go down on them too hard for that one. But they don’t carry small needles, in fact the first woman I had was shocked to hear I used a 29 gauge. She believed, and I can only assume she told this bit of nonsense from Quest, that using anything smaller than a 25 could cause ruptured veins. They don’t have specialist who have experience with difficult patients. And anytime it gets hard, they send them somewhere else, so they’ll never have specialists. They aren’t allowed to go anywhere else but the arms. Even hospitals go into the legs when necessary. They don’t offer any service other than the bare basics. I know you get can hemoglobin finger-prick testing, which I’m going to need every two week for 7-8 months when treatment starts. I asked and they said “No, we need the full vile for testing.” No, you don’t. My Hep C doctor told me these tests were available, you only need like two drops of blood. I’m sure some Quest out there is up-to-date enough to offer that service. I just pray I can find one close to me. Because it’s taken me a month and I still haven’t got the blood drawn for the first round of tests. There is not a snowball’s chance in hell that I would be able to get it done every two weeks. If you are going to monopolize an entire industry, at least have the decency to offer every single service and be equipped to handle every type of patient.
Is my frustration coming through clearly? I just want to make sure you get the magnitude of my contempt for this situation.
So we’ve been brainstorming ideas for moving forward. Because I clearly can’t keep spinning around this hamster wheel. There is a Mega-Quest over in the Pasadena or Altadena area near a hospital that does actually offer like every service. People who need to have bloodwork down three times a day, or stool samples, things like that. And my boyfriend during his tweek years (so his veins were in REALLY bad shape) went there and got a doctor to draw his blood who had been practicing medicine for like 30 years and was also an IV drug user for many years. That’s the guy I want. We called over there today and the receptionist thought she knew who he was talking about and that yes, he did in fact still work there. As another alternative, I found out my Suboxone doctor’s office does in-house bloodwork. Who better to go to than a doctor who specializes in IV drug users? I hope beyond hope that one of these two options pans out. I know that one of them is still a Quest, but if any Quest can do it, it should be that one (the way they all should be). Also, I think they are by far my best bet for the finger-prick hemoglobin testing.
So keep your fingers crossed for me! I can’t believe what a nightmare this has been. I never thought I’d be sick of getting stuck by needles.
