Health Problems
- Thread starter Kuriin
- Start date
- 29,521
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Got my bill for an ambulance ride to the ER in the mail today. This was the week before July 4th. I was at my parents house and my girlfriend was visiting her brother who lives an hour away. In the poorest state in the union they came and picked me up, hauled me in the ambulance on a stretcher which was kinda way past what I needed but whatever. No bill yet on the corticosteroid infusion. I was the only person in the ER at 7a.m.
$75 part of the property taxes and my parents pay $2,500 or less a year.
$75 part of the property taxes and my parents pay $2,500 or less a year.
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Haus
I am Big Balls!
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So I am of two minds on this one...
- First, with as many times as finding my squirrely veins has been an adventure that ended up with me having multiple jabs, multiple locations, and a lot of pain I welcome an accurate technological solution.
- But on the other hand, will I trust this shit? Oh Hell No. At least not for the first 3-4 years while they iron out the glitches.
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Nope fuck that. I've been asked was I on chemo BEFORE I was on chemo as my veins are so bad. Baby needle and a lot of rooting around. Hell even the Oncologist clinic where they do that every day had a hard time.
Haus
I am Big Balls!
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For the most part I have hideously hard to find veins. Then for some reason every now and again I find some magical person and there like "tap tap tap... poke... done" and I always try to remember their names.
Control
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Somehow robot vampires escaped the myriad apocalyptic scenarios I was considering. No longer!
Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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I feel like them letting us know up front it definitely won't hit an artery is sus
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Sheriff Cad
scientia potentia est
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This is just like self-driving cars to me. Is it as good as a true expert doing what they do? Clearly not.
Is it better than Shaniqua the 380 pound landwhale phlebotomist that doesn't give a fuck about you or anybody else and just stabs the fuck out of you even though you have veins protruding 1/2" out of your skin that a toddler could hit?
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jayrebb
Ssraeszha Raider
- 16,582
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This is just like self-driving cars to me. Is it as good as a true expert doing what they do? Clearly not.
Is it better than Shaniqua the 380 pound landwhale phlebotomist that doesn't give a fuck about you or anybody else and just stabs the fuck out of you even though you have veins protruding 1/2" out of your skin that a toddler could hit?
They got rid of the old "stinger" butterfly needle too apparently. It was a tiny X-shaped platform with a small half inch needle which fed into a hose to the collection. So the little butterfly platform just had to be placed in the right spot and the needle itself couldn't over-penetrate. The X sat on your forearm and supported the needle so no movement was possible, the phlebotomist could also use a finger to keep the X in place.
I thought I was going crazy when I asked for the butterfly recently about 10 years later and they took out this huge long needle (it was 2 gauges smaller than the usual blood draw needle, I later learned that's the new meaning of butterfly) attached to a hose, with no X platform or snub tip design. Just a huge ass super long needle. I was like "Well that's not the butterfly I remember" but the phlebotomist did a great job not transecting and just nudged it in a bit. The thing just free floats with 0 support like a straight pipe out of your arm, which I wasn't really pleased with because of the potential for movement and tissue damage) but she never pulled or moved the hose during the collection, so no tension happened, and no incident. I later asked an EMT friend what the fuck happened to the butterfly and how did it become this huge perversion of the concept. He said he doesn't know but he validated that he does remember the "stinger butterfly" but said he hasn't seen it since the 2000's. Basic medical care moving backwards, as usual.
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