"Painful cannula insertion"

In early March 2022 I was admitted by my consultant to A&E in Peterborough. After 4 and a half hours of waiting I was taken in and put on a trolley bed and examined. A nurse came to me to take bloods so I put out my left hand.  As I have very good veins I thought nothing of it.  The next thing I knew the needle really hurt me, and when I looked it was a canula. I asked why a canula had been put right in the middle of my arm where it bends and why I hadn't been told they were putting a cannula in or even been asked. 

As it was I was admitted to MSU for 10 days and that cannula hurt me, especially when the nurses were using it. The nurses in there were so busy that they couldn't even change the site of the cannula,  and I didn't want to push them as I could see how busy and short staffed they were. When I was transferred to a Ward eventually 10 days later it came up as a lump and I was in so much pain.   The nurse kindly changed the site of the canula.

I was discharged 19 days later and had to go to out patients for another blood test. The Phlebotomist could not use the vein which I had been using without any problem for several years as it had gone so hard.  They had to use the other hand and told me not to use that very hand for blood test for several weeks as it needed to be rested.

It's a good thing that I have very good veins otherwise I would have had problems giving a bloods in future and I hope no one gets treated the same way as I did. That site still hurts me when I touch it 40 days later. I am a diabetic and suffering from Heart failure and I have had double organ transplants, so I have had several cannulas and blood tests over the years without a problem whatsoever.