I’m a patient of Defy Medical, Dr. Caulkins wrote me a script for a therapeutic phlebotomy because my hematocrit was high. See, the problem is none of these places apparently do therapeutic phlebotomy’s, they only accept donations, I tried that route, but when they centrifuged my blood it didn’t meet the criteria. So, I showed them my script and they still wouldn’t honor it. They told me I’d have to go to the hospital to have it done, so I called my local hospital and send them my defymedical script so that their medical director can approve it, guess what? Denied.
This is seriously a wild goose chase. I’m going to have to stop TRT because of this very reason, no point of being on it if I can’t keep a safe hematocrit level and be able to donate when it’s high.
Any advice? Should I get a phlebatomy kit and do it myself? I’m desperate at this point, and I can feel my hematocrit is high too.
Doesn’t this go against americans with disabilities act? refusing to treat a patient due to polycythemia vera?
You get a kit something like this. It measures exactly how much you are taking. Placing a needle in a vein seems scary at first but it’s really easy and hard to do any real damage.
Because the reality is the majority of people aren’t comfortable jamming a needle into thier vein and watching 500ml of blood fill a bag up. This can easily lead to a shaky hand, infections, blown out veins and more.
To us its normal and seems easy but that’s simply not the case with the majority of the population.
I don’t think anyone is comfortable doing it until they do it. I understand what you’re saying but I think it’s a little less risky than most would think. Blowing out a vein that size is pretty tough. When you run out of larger ones and have to do smaller ones then it can be more of an issue. There are YouTube videos that go indepth on technique and you can even buy a practice hand if needed to get comfortable.
That’s true. But as you see here on the forum a lot of guys are still trying to perfect IM injections in thier glutes and have a hard time doing that even after a while.
Debatbale. Watching videos and actually placing a butterfly needle in a vein and holding steady are two different things. If it were that easy phlebtomist wouldn’t have to take classes on it. They would just have a 1 hour orientation video as part of the hiring process. Intravenous blood infections can be easily and quickly lethal its not just an abcess they can drain like an IM infection.
Again to me it a super simple concept stick it in at an angle let it flow pull it and call it a day. If could draw my own blood for lab test at home and mail it in I would.
I’d personally use the cephalic vein altho those can roll a bit more making placing of the needle trickier they are easier IMO to hold steady and still bend your arm if needed.
Its a big needle you want a nice flow but it’s also not going an inch into a muscle it’s just going slightly under the skin into a vein so it’s really not painful.
The Blood bank at my local hospital did it with out even having a script and then I just sent her the one from Defy about a month later. Sucks you have to deal with this
