Nurse said its okay to use needles and blood pressure on me

Thank goodness no one gives me a problem about it--Neither one of my arms can be used and they are great about following procedure--they do use my port for blood draw--but that's it I've had no problems???????

Here in Sweden they say definitely no to blood pressure.  They say taking blood is ok but only if it can be drawn without a strap.

I have a PICC on my right (had it in since last October) and mastecomy on my left; I get blood pressure taken from my leg. Bloods are taken from my PICC if the person is qualified, but most of the time blood is taken by a technician so it has to come from veins on my left - some of which are now permenantly scarred and useless due to this.  I was just in hospital for 4 days and it took them 11 attempts to get 3 samples.. ouch!

A bit OT but not totally - for those who have to use foot veins. They usually hurt like Hades to use, so have you ever asked your Drs for EMLA/lidocaine cream to use for those draw/accesses? We haveit for port accesses so why not for painful draws? Just a thought.

I wanted to add a note about PICC lines.
DH had one when he was treated for cancer at a major university hospital.

He had all his blood work done through the PICC line, as well as receiving his chemo thru it.

If they don't have a special unit for drawing blood in the oncology area, ask to be transferred. If you are already there, ask for the oncology nurses to come down to do your blood draws. You just have people who don't know what they are doing, and there is no reason for you to suffer through blood draws when you have a line in.
THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE FOR.

Incidentally, be really careful on the lookout for infections. The antibiotics that they gave DH for his PICC line infection wiped out the good flora in his gut, so he ended up with a really bad case of C. diff.
Good luck with this

I previously asked the phlebotomist if blood can be drawn from my foot. I was told I'd need to get a Dr to order it. Sooooooo,convinced my internist to write for my blood to be drawn from my foot.

I arrived at the lab this morning for my draw. Waited my turn & was taken to a drawing station with the chair/armboard set-up. I told them it needed to be drawn from my foot as written. I was taken to a room with a table/pillow set-up. The phlebotomist left the room & came back with another phlebotomist who proceeded to tell me blood couldn't be drawn form my foot because of legal/licensing reasons. I told them I didn't believe them & took my lab slip left

Hi I am a cardiac nurse and have been practicing for 27 years.  It is common knowledge and routinely practiced where I work not to use the side that lymph nodes have been removed.  Using the forearm of the PICC arm or the leg would be totally acceptable.  Good Luck

I get draws from my foot.  CPL, Quest, and LabCorp will not draw from the foot, so I have made arrangements with the hospital's lab to do my draws.  That was fine until my last time, in which they charged me $5000 just for the draw.  Makes absolutely NO sense to me....but my insurance paid that - unbelievable!  That was the last time I went there!  I then found that one of my doctor's nurses will draw from the foot - with no extra cost.  They then send it to Quest.  THat's my way around the whole ridiculousness.  I'm not wild about using my foot, since my veins are not any more cooperative there than anywhere else, but I have no choice.  For me, it's usually quite uncomfortable, but not horrible.  I am always tempted to use my arms, though.

Hey All - Where do you get a bracelet and what exactly does it say?

Since I have bilateral LE I do get blood draws in my feet. I don't notice any difference in pain level, but I do insist on lying down (easier for the phlebotomist too!) I get mine drawn at LabCorps, and as long as its written on the doctor's order they haven't refused (they DO refuse if I call and ask them, but if I show up with the order they don't -- which is not to say they're happy about it, just that they do it).

I drink water like crazy the day before, wear a microwave heating pad on my foot all the way there until she's ready to draw (being careful not to get it too hot), and I keep my legs moving while waiting to be called to keep things circulating. In other words, I hobble into the lab with this heating pad wrapped around one foot (and of course both arms in garments or wrapped) and sit there bouncing my legs on the floor like a nervous Nellie until they call me in. Judging by all the furtive glances I get from my fellow patients, it no doubt helps to keep their minds off their own woes. LabCorps should probably pay me for entertaining their customers.

I do have a very nice phlebotomist who not only does this without any fanfare, but invites her cohorts into the room (with my permission) so they can learn to do it too. One watched and then asked what was different about doing the foot, because it looked the same to her. My gal said, "The difference is it's easier to do in a foot because the veins are bigger." So much for all the hoopla about foot draws!

Liz, I'm so sorry about the "hoopla" they gave you. Do you have a doctor who will champion your cause and help convince them to do it? One woman here a while back got the lab to do it by asking them, "What would you do if I didn't have any arms?" Whatever works...

Binney

What would you do if I didn't have arms? LOL (& I needed a laugh. thanks Binney). I'm having trouble getting my docs to go along with this. My internist was trying to convince me that my lymphatics are working just fine because she didn't see any edema. And that it's not really the LE you have to worry about but the infection/cellulitus..........I did ask her to write on the lab requisition to draw out of my feet & she did(but acted a little frustrated, like I wasn't listening to her).

I had bilateral nodes removed 4 on one side, 5 the other. My left arm aches about 50% of the time. I recently went for a lymphedema screening. The therapist called it stage 0 & that she wasn't sure if the aching was related to LE or not. She thought everything I'm doing exercisewise is fine & I should consider sleeves for air travel(didn't sound like a strong suggestion). Her only recommendation for me was to have BPs & blood draws in my lowers extremities. She wrote this down on the copy of the Position Statement of the NLN she gave me.

I have larger than average prominent veins in both my upper & lower extremities. No one has ever missed. I'm not worried about pain.

I'll try the lab at a larger hospital. Silly me, I went to the lab of a small hospital where I was previously told my blood could be drawn from my foot if the doctor ordered it, grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I'll make sure I'm never a patient there!

I only had sentinel node removed on both sides and I have LE. Still trying to educate my docs. Thanks for the info and links.

The free pink hospital-like bracelet, I posted the link to earlier is fine for going in for surgery, but my usual one I wear for day to day is from http://www.n-styleid.com and they have real pretty ones.

When I was researching foot draws and IV's for Stepupspeakout, all I could find was a higher incidence of infection in leg IV's. Nothing about foot draws.

Here's the link, and on the page are links for how to take a leg blood pressure:

http://www.stepup-speakout.org/essential%20informat%20for%20healthcare%20providers.htm---

For patients with bilateral lymphedema or bilateral risk, learn how to take leg blood pressures, foot blood draws and foot or neck IV's if necessary. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/471829

While popliteal thigh pressures can be obtained, many patients find posterior tibial ankle blood pressures are more comfortable: http://www.ehow.com/how_5729015_check-blood-pressure-ankle.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8912031: "Since the mean blood pressure readings obtained at the arm and at the ankle were statistically equivalent, we concluded that the ankle cuff placement provided a reliable alternative to the placement of the cuff on the arm."

Concerns have been raised over the safety of intravenous lines in the lower extremity: they have been associated with a higher risk of infection, should be avoided when artificial joints are in the limb and this author could find no study that documented increased risk of deep vein thrombosis. The higher risk of infection needs to be weighed against the risk of exacerbation or triggering of lymphedema with the use of an IV in a limb with compromised lymphatic function.

I work in a rad onc office, and the primary nurse gave me a chart of a bilateral patient yesterday, and with absolutely no fuss, told me she took the blood pressure in her leg. I adore this woman.

 Kira