Blood Draw...

Awful. Just plain awful.

I have never felt so helpless and so sorry for my baby. It was horrible.

We had to get two vials of blood drawn for Dominick's lead test. Since we have a house in St. Louis city and our house was built before 1945, Dom needed this test by his 15 month appt. So we went Saturday morning to get this test done.

Well technically I went Friday morning and they couldn't find any of his paperork so I had to call the pediatrician's office and get it faxed to my work and then go back Saturday morning...but that's not the point of this story.

So Saturday morning, Nick, Dom and I got up and headed to the Quest Center by our house. We got there and weren't there long before we got called back. Everyone just LOVED Dommie! They were all talking to him and he was loving the attention. Until we had to get started.

Nick didn't think he could hold Dom so we switched places and I assumed the position in the chair, holding Dom. I had to hold him in a bear hug gripping him as tightly as I could without hurting him. One nurse had to hold the arm we were trying to get the blood from as still as she could, while a second nurse did the actual blood draw.

The first try was not a success. They got the needle in and the shreik of pain almost killed me, I swear. I put my head down and just held him tight. But I wasn't ready for how strong he is. He wiggled away and the needle popped out. So now we have no blood and a screaming baby. Not good.

They noticed he seemed a little dehydrated so we tried getting him to drink some water to get those veins to pop. It didn't really work. We tried again, on the same arm. They kept trying his right arm because that's where his "good veins" were.

So, the second try. Same positions for everyone, except this time we only had one nurse. So I had to bear hug him down and hold his other arm straight. Well, that was just silly. We got about 1/8 of a vial and then that needle popped out. More screaming. Not good.

The nurse checked with someone else and found that the 1/8 of a vial was good enough for one of the tests but not the other. So we were going to have to try again. Nick was getting really upset and frustrated. Nick can't stand needles and watching them stick Dom was almost too much for him. He spent a lot of time in the hallway, not watching.

We brought back in a second nurse for this try and had no choice but to go to the 'bad veins' for the blood draw. Wouldn't you know it, this time we hit the jackpot. We got a good vein because they not only got one full vial but TWO full vials! Score!

After we were done, we got Dom calmed down and he was back to smiling when we left. But it was so horrible while it was happening.

Since he was such a brave boy, we HAD to take him for a treat after the lab. We went to Chris' Pancake House for breakfast! Dom loved it.

Now we just have to pray the results are good!