There Will Be Blood

some days I just chock it up to being a Johnson, but as usual it looked much worse than it was.

So finished another two hours of physical therapy today - feeling pretty good, albeit a bit sweaty. Then off to the hospital's endoscopy/surgery suite, where the doctor does the spinal injections. Before I tell the interesting bit of the story, will have to say the injection went very well, just minor pain and the annoyance of laying flat on my back for 5 hours. That is the most difficult part as I don't even sleep on my back.

Now for the fun part - I have very small veins, and always a challenge on drawing blood or setting up an IV. So sure enough the doc wants to have a precautionary iv put in my arm, and the nurses engage in a discussion on where my vein might be. At this point the doctor comes back in and says he can find a vein (later to find out he hasn't done an iv in a few years, lol). They find one high in my left arm and, as is my norm, I look away as the needle goes in. I feel the needle and then hear the shouting as the nurses run out of the room, and the doctor uses his gloved finger to stem the tide (I did understand the rapido, rapido instruction). Lots of gauze was brought in, pressure stopped the bleeding in less than a minute, and the iv was successfully completed. But apparently I sprayed the scrubs of both the doctor and the nurses and scared the fellow patients (a couple of their husbands came in to check and were surprised to see me laughing - probably a good thing I looked away when the blood spurted). Now the very handsome doctor is extremely attentive, and think he will take especially good care of me (guilt is a very powerful emotion).

Tomorrow, I have two more hours of PT - then off for my consult with the surgical team (first anesthesiologist and then the plastic surgeon).

I apologize for missing the promised needle photo - I left my camera in the waiting room with my mom. I will get the photo on Thursday (and maybe one of my handsome doctors!!!)