yesterday I went in for my 4th drain a pint off session. Hemoglobin was still at 16.9... had a different nurse in the infusion lab and she was showing another how to do the phlebotomy as she has never done it before. The one doing it said "you keep going till the bag is as big as a tick about to pop off" ...and we did there was no way any more blood was going in that bag. I drank my oj in for of Tang and left. I went to the park to relax and be outside there were some rather nasty teenage boys there and I ended up walk more than I usually do but still felt good though a bit tired when I got to the other shelter house, I am now about a block from my car... reading email and drinking my water, was very hot here yesterday. Then out of the blue the world started spinning and a wave of nausea... I ended up putting my head down on the picnic table and about the same time water comes pouring out of every pour in my body. I could not see straight but did manage to call my son, no answer (he was at work), then called his supervisor no answer, they work construction so figured they were pouring so since had left messages I left head down and closed my eyes. I finally decided that perhaps I should call someone else, so called a dear friend and coworker who came to the park with her adult son who if needed could have picked me up and carried me away. I could not focus good enough to try and call 911 as couldnt make out the numbers on phone but did recognize the pictures of who I was calling. She called 911 and dialed 411 on my phone so I could get ph# for my sons work connected..
At ER think they were more interested in my leg going crazy than anything that caused me to be there... One of the doctors did get in my backpack on my walker and get out the package of Skelaxtin and let me take one when I had my wits back about me (almost done with the second bag of saline) They drew H and H in ER and my trip to the infusion lab for phlebotomy did a bang up job, my hemoglobin was down to 13.5. Dx...you dont fill the bag till it is as big as a tick ready to pop off!! I had a reaction to losing to much blood in a short time and that is what had caused the dizziness, nausea and profuse fluid loss. Still feeling a bit weak today but much better than even when I was released from ER.
Thinking I might have to find a different place to have the pint drained off if needed again in 2 weeks as this is same place as the one who didnt see the NO IODINE IN ANY FORM on front of my chart 2 weeks ago.

Got a call from the clinic... going to hold off and not do another draining for a month... which doesnt hurt my feelings what so ever.

My husband gets therapeutic phlebotomies and his doctor writes the orders to remove a specific amount. In his case, they remove 250 ml every other month. They actually measure the output on scale to make sure they don't take too much. Your lab should not be assessing the amount visually. They need to be more precise. The standard therapeutic phlebotomy usually calls for the removal of 450 -500 ml of whole blood.

They can also do a process called apheresis where they pull out only one element of you blood and replace the rest. So they could take more red cells than whole blood donation because they put back the plasma and platelets after they spin off the red cells.

i searched and found several protocols.. was going to take our "powder scale" with me next time I go so they could weigh the bag. Then a nurse friend said "Jo would you allow someone to bring in from a home a scale with other patients in the room receiving chemo?" Well, she did have a point. I'm thnking that instead of using the bag collection system that if they dont have a scale then just have them draw it off syringe only not really sure what the heck is going on or if the paranoia is coming from these dang meds but thing just seem to be getting stranger and stranger.

Yes, they can use the syringe to accurately pull off the correct amount of blood. My husband goes to the blood donor services for his procedure. So if you are in a an infusion center, they should be using the syringes/vacuum tubes. I hope your doc is aware of what happened so they can address this with them.

Good luck.

from the drop in my hemoglobin from before and what it was in ER after I collapsed and got taken in in the ambulance, my pcp decided to wait a month before we do it again. Think I'm going to see if there is some place else that it can be done that has the proper equipment to do it right. I know I could go to red cross but if I do that would mean that if I get this leg business under control that they would never let me donate again even if my blood was "good" again.

Well, my blood pressure sure has been good this past month and have not had to take BP meds most of it.. but it has been almost a month and sitll have not found another place to get the pint drained off if needed.. guess going to have to bite the bullet and call the clinic and set up the H and H then see where they plan to send me.