pulmonary function test with ABG or 1 ABG or whatever...

[Julie]

And you're responding to an almost 2 yr old (or 10 yr to be accurate) thread.

[Janknitz]

I had several ABG's as a teenager. They hurt, but not that much. In those days they gave no surface anesthetic. I just had to suck it up.

It does sound like she missed the artery. Whether this is a screw up or not is debatable. It's hard to hit the right spot and sometimes the vessel does roll out of the way. I've even had venipunctures where the vein rolled out of the way, and once they inserted the needle too deep so that the needle penetrated the opposite wall of the vein. Big bruise from that one! Stuff happens. I try to be patient with the people who have to do this--what an incredibly hard job!

The only time I lose my patience is when a phlebotomist insists on trying to take blood from my right arm instead of my left arm. I went through two IVF procedures with daily blood draws, so I know this for certain--the vein on the right side is no good (I had a cardiac catheterization when I was a child through that arm, and I think there was some damage). I even have a tiny mole on the spot where the blood is taken on the left arm (X marks the spot) and I have the easiest blood draws ever from that arm--I let students practice on me because it's a no fail blood draw (except when the guy went through the back wall). When a phlebotomist gets huffy with me about using the right arm, THEN we have a problem.