Clinic Visit

Firstly, I would like to apologize for not posting sooner, however, family commitments had to come first.

As my next clinic appointment rapidly charges towards me, I dread sitting in the consultation room. I consider myself extremely fearless, and I have absolutely no issues with blood nor do I have issues with needles. In fact, I watch intently as they plunge a sharpened pipe into my arm and claim that all I will feel is a tiny scratch. Whom are they kidding? A scratch! I do not have doctor-or-nurse-friendly veins; in fact, it dramatically highlights the experience, or inexperience as is often the case, of the vampire drawing the blood from my body ... perhaps this is somewhat dramatic, but the point I am trying to make is that drawing blood is an art and a skill which many practitioners have not mastered. I consider my self lucky in that I know of 3 people, out of the plethora of vampires, who have the unique ability to withdraw blood while meticulously avoiding each and every pain receptor. Unfortunately, these three are not always available, and when this is the case then I do dread having blood taken.

As I have already mentioned, my veins are rather shy and therefore require one of two things, namely experience or innovation. In the absence of both, I have found myself at the mercy of someone with a sharpened implement who decided to insert said implement "in the vicinity" of a vein, and then failing to find this vein proceeds to wiggle this sharpened implement in my body in an attempt to separate the meat from the bone. With any luck this does not happen and they eventually find a suitable amount of blood and stop. The result of such activity is an arm that hurts and a bruise about the size of a compact disc.

Where experience is found wanting, innovation is required in finding suitable veins for "milking". One nurse was particularly noteworthy for this. On a day when my veins were particularly reclusive, she decided to simulate taking my blood pressure - without actually measuring the pressure - which caused my reclusive vein to become more lively and pronounced, whereupon she inserted the torture device into the proper place without inflicting pain. Should you find yourself in a similar venous predicament, then remember this trick and suggest it to the perpetrator.

Unfortunately, some veins deliver blood in greater flows than others. "All veins are equal, but some veins are more equal than others!" Thus the blood obtained from a weak vein is as good as that obtained from a good vein, however, it will take longer to fill the vile vial if a weaker vein is used.

This, neatly, brings me to the next point. This particular clinic has the habit of withdrawing blood by filling numerous vials. The sight of roughly 2 dozen vials that must be filled is enough to make anyone question the motive of the person withdrawing the blood. In total, this amounts to less than the pint withdrawn from blood donors, with one caveat. When blood is donated, the flow of the withdrawal is reduced thereby causing a minimum upset to the system, whereas the blood flow is totally uncontrolled and rapid during my clinic appointment. This is perhaps an exaggeration, but there are very definite differences in the approach.

Occasionally, a visit to the physiotherapist for a physical evaluation is required. The physiotherapist will subject you to numerous tests based on sight, sensations, balance and reflexes. They are useful if you pay attention, because here you can determine for yourself whether new problems have developed or old ones have resurfaced or been aggravated. This is equivalent to having a "road worthy" test being done on you if you were a car. I particularly loathe these tests because they inevitably discover some malfunction that did not exist the day before, or they discover that an old malfunction is no longer present, and presume that it has been corrected, whereas the truth of the matter is that this particular malfunction decided not to rear its ugly head on the very day that I am supposed to see the physiotherapist.

This, unfortunately, is the nature of MS. It is unreliable! Things can change dramatically from one day to the next and moreover, to observers, these dramatic fluctuations in your health and abilities may appear as an act. The uniqueness and peculiarity of the symptoms and manifestations of MS, from one individual to the next, certainly adds justification to such perceptions and makes the task of convincing the observers that much harder.

I hope this helps everyone who has to deal with the monthly and/or weekly draining of blood. Keep a positive attitude about this. Furthermore, these nurses and doctors are trying to help us and everyone has to start somewhere to gain the required experience. Think of it as a community service, whereby you are enabling a novice to gain the required experience to make it easier for other patients to have their blood withdrawn.