The Joy of IVs

Today I get to do an OGTT (an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test). Not because I'm diabetic or even close to being diabetic, but because one of our studies requires a preliminary test to make sure we can do the labs correctly. So instead of hauling some unfortunate child in for this (it's a child study), I am the guinea pig. Because it involved 5 blood draws, you have to have an IV (most people don't have enough good sites for 5 sticks anyway). Of course it hurt going in, but I have these monster veins (just like all my family -- my little sister was teased so much in the 1st grade about her veins that she told the kids she'd had a vein transplant when she was a baby -- and they left her alone after that...she's funny) so really, I was the logical choice. I hate that. And then it's right in the wrist so it's hard to type. OK, have I whined enough yet? Probably. :)

I have to admit I will miss the research aspect if I leave this job. Although I did apply for one that sounds really interesting; it's called the PACT program. Nurses visit severely mentally ill patients in their homes and work with a team to make sure that they take their medication and that problems are stopped before they really get to be problems. It's being done on a Federal grant, and so far it's saved the state millions in reducing or eliminating hospitalizations. Plus I'd be out and about, which would be good for me at this point; I need more exercise and less sitting.

Only one draw left to go...hurray! I can't wait to get this thing out of my arm. Oh well. It always helps when I tell my patients that I've been through the same thing I'm asking them to do.