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Author Topic: Blood Draw Anxiety  (Read 8835 times)

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Offline lana8900

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  • Posts: 13
Blood Draw Anxiety
« on: April 19, 2019, 04:20:46 am »
Can I just say that I hate LabCorp? Unfortunately, it is the only place where I can get blood drawn with my insurance. I have had some worrisome experience at LabCorp in the past, and have reached out to the company to follow up with the poor practices I have experienced.

So on to what happened yesterday. I went in for some blood work, I was the first one in the morning but I noticed a small circle of dried blood in the tray attached to the chair. She used some gauze and alcohol pad and wiped it away with her bare hands. She then proceeded to put my blood vials and gauze in the same tray, without washing her hands. She put some gloves on and tore off the finger of the pointer finger on the hand that wiped the blood away to palpate for a vein, after she grabbed one of two tourniquets that were sitting in the tray already and tied it around my arm, then proceeded to wipe my arm with a dry alcohol swab. Before I could say that it was dry, she felt my vein again and began to draw my blood. She grabbed the gauze from the tray that had the dry blood, and pressed the side that was against the tray onto my puncture and bandaged it off.

Yes, I have anxiety. Yes, I am being treated. But still, experiences like this leave me feeling horrible for days or even weeks after.

I just need to know if there is any possible risk associated with what happened? Since I saw actual dried blood that could have made it's way to my skin via her bare finger prior to the needle entering my bloodstream.

Thank you.

Offline Lynn K

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  • Posts: 4,543
  • Get tested, get treated, get cured, fight Hep c!
Re: Blood Draw Anxiety
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2019, 01:36:43 pm »
No i very much doubt it.

I’m sort of thinking it could be your anxiety coloring your experiences of what you see. Was there blood there could it have been something else? If you are seeing a counselor for your anxiety what do they say when you discuss these occurrences? They are in the medical field what would they think of your assessment of this situation and your risk?

I go to lab Corp every six months to monitor my liver disease. Before I was diagnosed with hep c I very seldom had blood testing done.

I’m kind of wondering why you are having blood testing performed?

To the best of my knowledge there is no evidence of anyone contracting hep c through medical blood testing having blood draws done.
Genotype 1a
1978 contracted, 1990 Dx
1995 Intron A failed
2001 Interferon Riba null response
2003 Pegintron Riba trial med null response
2008 F4 Cirrhosis Bx
2014 12 week Sov/Oly relapse
10/14 fibroscan 27 PLT 96
2014 24 weeks Harvoni 15 weeks Riba
5/4/15 EOT not detected, ALT 21, AST 20
4 week post not detected, ALT 26, AST 28
12 week post NOT DETECTED (07/27/15)
ALT 29, AST 27 PLT 92
24 week post NOT DETECTED! (10/19/15)
44 weeks (3/11/16)  fibroscan 33, PLT 111, HCV NOT DETECTED!
I AM FREE!

Offline lana8900

  • Member
  • Posts: 13
Re: Blood Draw Anxiety
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2019, 02:17:42 pm »
Thank you for your reply!

It was definitely blood, I'm just hyper aware of my surroundings because of my OCD/Anxiety. Honestly, a lot of mental health specialists don't really understand my fears and I guess it is kind of hard to understand from the outside.

I'm getting blood work done because I have something called Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. I just started seeing an Endocrinologist for it and had to get a lot of initial blood work done. I actually put it off for awhile because I hate getting my blood drawn due to my anxiety. 

Offline Lynn K

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  • Member
  • Posts: 4,543
  • Get tested, get treated, get cured, fight Hep c!
Re: Blood Draw Anxiety
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2019, 02:58:55 pm »
Ok fair enough I know some folks with  medical anxiety often get medical testing done because they’re afraid they’ve contracted something. So it is reasonable for you to have this testing done. Still there are no known incidents of hep c being contracted in this way. 

I’m sure I may have said before even a medical worker who has a needlestick involving a patient with known hepatitis C so fresh blood immediately being immediately injected into their blood stream there’s only a 1.8% chance of infection. Obviously since you don’t know that this was hepatitis C infected blood since less than 3% of the population even has hep c and it’s doubtful that it entered your bloodstream then your odds of transmission would be significantly below that 1.8%
Genotype 1a
1978 contracted, 1990 Dx
1995 Intron A failed
2001 Interferon Riba null response
2003 Pegintron Riba trial med null response
2008 F4 Cirrhosis Bx
2014 12 week Sov/Oly relapse
10/14 fibroscan 27 PLT 96
2014 24 weeks Harvoni 15 weeks Riba
5/4/15 EOT not detected, ALT 21, AST 20
4 week post not detected, ALT 26, AST 28
12 week post NOT DETECTED (07/27/15)
ALT 29, AST 27 PLT 92
24 week post NOT DETECTED! (10/19/15)
44 weeks (3/11/16)  fibroscan 33, PLT 111, HCV NOT DETECTED!
I AM FREE!

 


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