Nerve injury from venous draw?

[Regenallotment]

Had a blood draw yesterday and the nurse couldn’t get anything from my left arm and while trying I got this searing electric shock type burning pain down the inside of my forearm down to my fingers.

I hit the roof (involuntarily howled) and she eventually took it out and tried the other side.

The pain subsided almost immediately but I now have a bit of numbness and some tingly internally itchy prickly bits and general weakness and dull ache on that side.

Anyone had this? How long before I’m back to normal? Is it grounds for complaint? She didn’t acknowledge any nerve issue when I asked what caused that, no aftercare advice.

[TiggerMe Ambassador]

I’ve had that but after the initial burning sensation no lasting after effect thankfully

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to TiggerMe]

I did cut into the nerve in the top of my index finger with the bread knife and it gradually came good but it's still prone to the occasional itchy, twinge.... 10 years ago now. There's nothing to be done for nerve damage as far as I'm aware 😕

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to TiggerMe]

This reminds me of a French and Saunders farmers sketch 👩‍🌾🔪🩸

[Buddy195 Administrator]

So sorry to hear this Regen… I would ask your surgery for advice if you are still having effects from the blood draw.

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to Buddy195]

Good idea, I managed to get a call back early afternoon thanks for that.

[PurpleNails Administrator]

This sounds awful.

I have heard of this before, but it is an extremely rare occurrence. The lingering discomfort usually resolves in 2 days.

Sounds like the phlebotomist/nurse didn’t acknowledge your pain during process, so that should be reported in any complaint.

Nerve injury more likely to happen if

* Using the wrong size needle

* Using too much force

* Inserting the needle too deeply into the vein

* Moving the needle inside the vein

* Leaving the tourniquet on for too long

* Attempting to draw blood too many times

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to PurpleNails]

Yeah, she was a bit flappy before she started and asked me about 10 times if I was ok with needles (I am) second go went like a dream. 🤦🏽‍♀️

[Bertwills]

so sorry to hear this. We have so many blood tests, it’s scary to know that it can go so wrong. Sounds like inexperience , she needs to practice on more oranges. Hope you recover soon

[tattybogle]

.. oh heck ... i've never thought of that happening with blood draw ..and will try and forget it can as soon as i've written this.

nerves really don't like being annoyed by anything .... depending on how annoyed it is , it could take several moths months to stop reminding you that it isn't quite happy ... i've had a couple of nerve injury incidents ... they did both (eventually) stop complaining and left no problem ,,,, one took a few months ..... one took about 5 years ,,, mind you that one involved a motorbike and the back end of a car ,so it was not just annoyed , it was properly pi$$ed off.

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to tattybogle]

I read this whilst waiting for a blood draw 🫤 two attempts but thankfully no awful burning... escaped unharmed... well.. vampire bite plasters

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to TiggerMe]

Yikes poor you 🧛‍♀️

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to tattybogle]

Oh no sorry, totally hadn’t thought about frightening everyone, was totally in my bubble there. 🤦🏽‍♀️

[Regenallotment Ambassador]

Spoke to a GP who said give it a week, it’s just a dull ache this end of the day so fingers crossed, she said it’s very rare but not unheard of, she’d had it happen to her.

Advice was to keep it moving and keep blood flow, not to rest it or ice it. 🌱

[Buddy195 Administrator in reply to Regenallotment]

That sounds like a good plan; ‘keep dancing’! 🤣

[serenfach]

Yes, flap it about - the more blood going past the site the better. It can take a while, but the niggles get less and less over time. But I would report it to the surgery or hospital as the nurse may need reminding how to do it properly!