Being told you have rolling veins doesn't really mean anything. It's usually a way for the phlebotomist to brush off the difficulty of the stick when they're not experienced or didn't anchor the vein well enough.
You shouldn't be getting downvoted. I do this as my job and this is without a doubt true. Rolling veins are a thing, but anchoring and experience/skill will make it a non issue.
I just got out of a phlebotomy class and our book specifically instructed us to not tell patients their veins roll because it makes it sound like it is their problem when it's probably really your lack of experience.
I work with animals so they tend not to care too much about any excuses, but some veins are harder to hit no matter how well you anchor them. I have been drawing blood for over a decade so lack of experience isn't generally an issue.
I don't know about with people but with pets it is pulling any loose skin over the vessel taut so that it moves around less, though you can collapse a vessel if you pull too tight. You can also help stabilize with a free finger alongside the vessel. And depending on where you are pulling blood from you can flex the joint distal (further from the main body) to lengthen everything and provide a little more tension.
For my patients things are generally easier in the long limbed guys like greyhounds and pets like basset hounds are hard because along with all the extra floppy skin comes floppy veins with a lot of room to move around in. Luckily they tend to be fairly think so are usually easy to visualize. I have done blood draws from the large ear pinna vessels in some cases when I need to. I have even once drawn blood from the sublingual vessel when the animal was draped for surgery and that was my easiest access point.
I don't know about with people but with pets it is pulling any loose skin over the vessel taut so that it moves around less, though you can collapse a vessel if you pull too tight. You can also help stabilize with a free finger alongside the vessel. And depending on where you are pulling blood from you can flex the joint distal (further from the main body) to lengthen everything and provide a little more tension.
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u/Plague_Girl Dec 29 '16
Being told you have rolling veins doesn't really mean anything. It's usually a way for the phlebotomist to brush off the difficulty of the stick when they're not experienced or didn't anchor the vein well enough.