Hypersensitive veins

[Jacbar]

Hi,

This is a bit of a weird question and most likely isn’t Lupus related but who knows.

My whole life I’ve found blood tests extremely painful. I don’t mind injections and don’t have a needle phobia.

I also find cannulas excruciating and find being put to sleep the most pain I’ve ever experienced. I recently had my 7th surgery and had to have a consultation with an anaesthesiologist as I woke up during surgery last year but was paralysed so couldn’t tell them. During the consultation I told them about the problems with cannulas and being put to sleep and he said that 1 in 200 people have this problem and there was things they could do.

Fast forward to surgery 3 weeks ago and they couldn’t even get saline in my cannula and had to gas me to sleep and put another cannula in.

Afterwards they told me I have small, hypersensitive veins and would always have issues.

Is this a condition in its own right or is it more likely to be lupus/ immune related? Or am I just unlucky?

Sorry for the long post. I have ptsd after waking up from surgery and anxiety being put to sleep but I feel this is now bordering ptsd too 😩

Jac x

[Hidden]

I also have very sensitive veins and have many scars from cannulas - less so blood tests because I Di have one good vein still - but still have three deep indentations on my arms. I have had to stop IV antibiotics in the past for this reason - too many phebites.

I don’t think this is thought to be related to my connective tissue disease. Just one of those things some have. I’ve never been diagnosed but I’m fairly sure I have EDS - which might be related to these flimsy veins in guessing? X

[777dove]

Hello Jacbar, I have had issues with my veins also, although I have not been dxd with lupus, but have been with sjogrens. As a child I would faint dead away after any injection. Then as I had to give blood for tests my veins would collapse, roll, and close their valves. VERY hard to get blood out of me. My theory is because I have Raynauds my hyper defensive internal body will do whatever it takes to NOT give it up. lol

I also woke up during a colonoscopy once. I told them I was awake after I realized I wasn't watching Pink Panther on tv--it was my insides!! Seriously I have began to tell my body out loud that its ok to give the blood and it seems to help a lot. Mind-body, right?

[Sara_A]

No it’s just some people have difficult veins! They may be deep or thin or difficult if the skin is very scarred in that area from previous attempts or if u are overweight or some people u just cannot see or feel the veins so it makes it harder to find them. If u haven’t had enough to drink ( like if u are nil by mouth for a while) or just don’t drink enough anyway, this can lead to ur veins being harder to access.

Sorry to ramble on but these are the main reasons, it’s nothing to do with lupus and it’s not a specific condition it’s just the way people are sometimes or any of the above factors!

[Sara_A]

Ps I tend to alternate my arms to let each one recover! I have bloods either 2 weekly or monthly so try to give them time. If there is scarring they should just try to go above or below it a bit.

Or they could use a butterfly needle instead for taking bloods, but I’m sure they know what they are doing so have prob tried everything!