Blood work

[jjmc123]

Logan's 2nd CVR is quickly approaching. He needs to get blood drawn within 72 hours of his surgery. We happen to have a tour scheduled within that time frame so we're going to do the blood work that day since it's an hour drive to the hospital. Our hospital does not do appointments for blood work which is frustrating. We want to do the blood work before the tour so that he can calm down before we go home and remembers only happy thoughts from the hospital since the next time we return, he's having his surgery. I'm trying to figure out how early I need to go. Our tour is at 4:30pm. I'm hoping to not take too much time off of work since I've missed so much with all of his other appointments & I'll be out for the surgery itself. I called the lab if they could give me a good estimate, but they were no help. I figured I'd ask your opinion. I was originally giving ourselves an hour for the blood work. Do you think I should plan for more time than that?

[josh'smommy]

My son was considered a "difficult stick" and often required multiple people trying multiple times to get his blood work done. I would call the lab in the morning of the day I was taking him in (usually in the afternoon) and let them know what time I was bringing him. This allowed them to have extra staff available for the blood draw and allowed me to control what time it was done and how long it would take.:giggle Not sure if this would work for you, but it's worth a try!

[Janet]

From what I remember we were there for about 1/2 hour total (with waiting for our turn). I'm sure the next time we go will be harder, she's bigger and stronger for trying to hold down :sad

[Monkey'sMommy]

I have no experience with blood draws in children, but I doooo have experience planning for the worst. My nickname is Worst Case Kristin, after all. If it were me, I would leave a window of two hours and then bring a bag lunch or snacks and activities to do in some quiet space in the hospital afterwards if time allowed. But that's just me...always prepared for the worst case scenario so there are no surprises!

[jjmc123]

Jaime - that's a good idea to call ahead. At the very least I'll see if they are unusually busy.

Kristen - they have tvs in all the waiting rooms so that helps and we gave Logan my husbands old iPhone so that occupies him for hours. Thankfully Logan is awesome in waiting rooms.

The receptionist just annoyed me because she didn't understand why I can't just go in the morning. I'm taking off enough time from work for the surgery and all the other dr apointments, I don't want to take off yet another day.

[M & M's Mommy]

Usually, the pediatric lab at the hospital isn't as busy as the main lab. Plus, they are trained for difficult sticks on peds. I would go about 1 1/2 to 2 hrs in advance and if u finish earlier and he is cranky, u can give him a little Tylenol and a cookie or treat to calm him down. Bribery never hurts!

[jjmc123]

I think I'm now going to try to get there about 2 hours ahead of time. We did get him a present for the procedure so that will help cheer him up. I hate the waiting for this. I wish we could just do the blood work earlier and get it over with. Oh well.

[jjmc123]

:yipee Logan still needs blood work, but at least the day just got a lot simpler. DH was surprised with an extra comp day at work so he'll be driving to the hospital with me. Originally I was driving Logan to the blood work and DH was going to meet us when he got out of work for the tour. We live an hour away so I wasn't looking forward to the drive with all the traffic. Then today I called the child life office to see if I can make the tour later to give us more time for the blood work. I got to speak to the person who is giving us the private tour and she said that we can do the blood work and then page her when we're ready for the tour. It doesn't matter if we're early or late. That takes away a lot of stress! With all the crap going on now, it's these little things that really help with the stress.

[Monkey'sMommy]

Oh, that's fabulous. What a relief! Now you can feel much more relaxed about the day, which I'm sure will help Logan too. Wahooo!