Children and Blood Tests

My girls both had blood tests done on Friday. There was no tears, no tantrums, nothing. It was a quiet and peaceful experience.

Heidi got 1 vial of blood taken to test for genetic problems at the request of the kiddie shrink we saw on Tuesday.

Annie had 6 vials of blood taken to test for clotting disorders at the request of her pediatrician. Poor kid we’ve really put her through the wringer with this one. We got the pathology request form about a month ago.

I took her to the first nurse 3 weeks ago. She refused to take blood from a 5 year old.

So we went to a different pathology company. They refused to do the test based on the amount of blood that was to be taken, more than 5mls and their policy is 1ml per year of age.

Off to yet another pathology company, we made an appointment this time round, I didn’t want to get Annie all worked up again for the blood test and have nothing happen. They changed the appointment on us to a time when there were two nurses available. So in we went. Then they saw the request form. Numerous phone calls and a 30 minute wait later and we were told they couldn’t do the test either we needed to go into the Royal Childrens Hospital to have it done.

:: sigh ::

That week I talked to the other mums at our Early Intervention Centre about the dramas we’d been having.

One Mum said she always takes her children to the Austin Hospital Pathology for their blood tests and to ask for the pathology nurse that her kids call ‘Aunty Cathy’. The same Mum also recommended I make use of a product called Emla Cream which numbs the skin.

So Friday morning dawned.  Hubby had the day off work and together we got the girls ready for their blood tests.  I printed out a copy of the Blood Test Social Story for both girls.  We read the story a couple of times.  I made sure both girls had plenty to drink and were wearing warm clothing – thus hopefully ensuring they had nice plump veins.  As we got in the car I put a little Emla Cream on each of their elbows and stuck a patch over the top.

40 minutes later the girls were each sitting in their chairs getting their blood taken with no tears, screams or upset.  It was bloody brilliant.

Annie was white as a ghost afterwards, so much blood out of the poor kid.

We celebrated the successful blood test experience with lunch at McDonalds which restored the colour to Annie’s cheeks.

Thank you to the Mum who suggested going to the Austin Hospital Pathology and the Emla Cream. Thank you to the people who wrote the Blood Test Social Story.  Thank you to the wonderful staff at Austin Hospital Pathology.

Here we are 2 days post blood test and neither of my girls has any bruising where they had the blood taken.  In fact if it wasn’t for the tiny little spot on Heidi’s arm you’d not know she had blood taken at all.  Annie has a larger spot on her arm but it is as nothing compared to her last blood test.

Now we await the results