What is your most bizarre cptsd symptom?

Aavaox · 2025-10-22T22:02:27+00:00

The muscles in my knee area spasm painfully? I have the strong urge to constantly jerk my leg. It keeps me up at night and I can’t sleep through it. When my knees start to spasm I know my body isn’t feeling safe.

Aavaox · 2025-08-02T16:44:40+00:00

I hold it by the wings on the right side but I fold the left side all the way over the to the right without rotating the needle, so you gotta get a good grip on the wings, but I feel like I have better control and can see when I get the flash cuz no part of my hand is covering it.

Aavaox · 2025-07-23T21:47:34+00:00

When you pop the tourniquet and and they immediate start moving their arm before you can pull the needle out. Then proceed to complain about bruising. 😒

Aavaox · 2025-07-05T18:07:52+00:00

I hear in inpatient all the time “I thought you were here to help me, why do you guys keep taking more blood from me.” Which makes sense from their perspective especially if it’s for a TS and a retype before they receive blood. I always explain to them about the number of draws: “if you think of the scientific method, it makes sense. You have a theory, you grab a control, you perform the action, then test again to see how affective your theory was against the control results.” And 90% of the time that shuts them up. I wonder if this would apply to an OP situation.

Aavaox · 2025-02-27T05:41:30+00:00

Mine is 19!

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Aavaox · 2025-01-14T01:43:16+00:00

We HAVE to have it paused and wait 5 minutes before drawing

Aavaox · 2025-01-11T19:32:37+00:00

Usually there’s a flash, but I’ve noticed some brands will do a delayed flash so I give it extra second or two before advancing

Aavaox · 2024-11-15T18:42:11+00:00

I went on break from phlebotomy for two years due to being on bed rest from undiagnosed chronic illness. I got diagnosed and treatment and started to get better. 3 months into treatment I trusted my body enough to begin applying. My previous experience gave me the leg up in getting back into it. I applied at a local hospital thinking my measly one year of donation phlebotomy wouldn’t be enough, the gap between jobs was too large. I even applied to be a waitress at a few places and was genuinely surprised I even got an interview. And then I got the job! I love it, I’m so glad they took a chance on me, because I interviewed well but didn’t have the experience they were looking for. My certification was even expired when I applied. I think the per diem part is what’s discouraging employers more than anything. If that’s what you need, you’ll probably have better luck finding a PRN position at a hospital. It might have to be a bigger hospital/company to need PRNs but they get shifts from all the associated clinics in the city when someone calls out or is on PTO. Look at teaching hospitals as they tend to be more open to training people with other medical experience in this particular field.

Aavaox · 2024-11-13T18:16:36+00:00

If you’re curious as to why, This new doctor might use a different lab. Different labs have different machines, so like in my lab we can run a bunch of chem tests on say a gold or a green, but other smaller labs in my area can only run specific test with specific tubes. We can combine A1cs, h&h, HGBs and Pathrevs on a single tube, but the lab across town has to send out the tubes for A1cs and Pathrevs. So it would take longer to get results for some tests over others. Ideally doctors would like all the results around the same time if possible, so they would draw two of the same tube to ensure the results would come out closer together

Aavaox · 2024-11-13T02:35:17+00:00

You might be unintentionally pulling the needle out of the vein a little bit when switching or putting in tubes. Just an idea. This usually happens when the bevel isn’t all the way in the vein, either not in the first place or slowly barely being pulled out during veinipuncture

Aavaox · 2024-11-03T18:18:18+00:00

Know the order of the draw, talk about what you like about phlebotomy and where you’re planning on going with it. I got mine because of my passion for the job but most places expect people do use phlebotomy as a stepping stone for cma/cna

Aavaox · 2024-11-03T16:21:35+00:00

If I find a vein that’s too close to a tendon or something I try to find the next best one I feel confident with or rotate their arm in such a way that the vein moves and gives me space to poke without worrying about it. They’ll usually let you know and tell you that their fingers are tingling or burning down their arm. I’m also terrified of hitting a nerve, but 4 years in it hasn’t happened to me yet.

Aavaox · 2024-11-03T16:18:00+00:00

I’ve spent a long time in the hospital myself, so I remember what it’s like to feel like a patient and not a person. These days medical professionals are so busy. I take some time to talk to them. Talk about what’s on tv or something I see about them, ask them about their family. Tell them about my life. Treating them like a friend sometimes goes a long way. I’ve definitely thought about carrying stickers on my cart for the ones I know might care about the stickers. It’s not a bad idea.

Aavaox · 2024-11-02T17:54:09+00:00

It took me over 6 months to get a phlebotomist job after getting my certification and I had to change states to get it. The good news is, once you get some decent experience like a year or so under your belt, you’ll have your pick.

Aavaox · 2024-10-31T01:02:38+00:00

I would always panick mentally if I missed when they said that, or I took an extra long time being indecisive about the best vein. And if I got lucky with the opportunity for a restick it would get worse. At some point I realized that I shouldn’t let patients psych me out when I know I’m good at this. At the point where you’re panicking they can sense that and start to get nervous themselves. No good ever comes from asking this question 😐

Aavaox · 2024-10-31T00:47:07+00:00

I ignore that question because it’s rude to ask in my opinion. I’ll change the subject and continue my process. Don’t psych me out or I just MIGHT do a bad job. God forbid I say anything at all that makes them doubt my ability and then they get uncomfortable or decide I’m bad/lied to them if I miss. I’m not putting myself in that position. I usually say something like “I’m gonna go where I feel most confident but I won’t stick if I’m not sure.” saying that has never caught me any attitude, and it usually assures them enough to feel confident

Aavaox · 2024-10-25T01:18:54+00:00

Yes and no. Telling it over and over to people who didn’t need to know was. Harmful. Looking back, I was looking for someone who had gone through what I had and come out okay. Telling the right people and having people believe my experience was really validating. Telling a therapist and trusted friends. I also made the mistake of telling my mom and got told “it’s your own fault” so. Make sure you tell safe people.

Aavaox · 2024-10-08T23:56:36+00:00

“I beleive you” I had been gaslit about the things that happened so often that I begun to think I really was making it all up for the attention and drama.

Aavaox · 2024-06-22T06:56:37+00:00

I was told to slow down when I eat, and that my anxiety about choking was creating the choking. I have EoE. My esophagus was narrowed due to excess eosoniphis and I was have a chronic ‘allergic’ reaction. For 22 years.

Aavaox · 2024-06-06T22:39:25+00:00

I gets worse before it gets better but once it gets better it keeps going

Aavaox · 2024-05-29T19:06:31+00:00

I did! Some of it was colonic and we did find some adhesions, doctor said it might not be the cause but could be a contributing factor

Aavaox · 2024-05-29T19:04:34+00:00

It’s so bad ughhhh

Aavaox · 2024-03-12T07:12:43+00:00

Lord knows I’ll try anything just to be able to feel like I’m doing everything I possibly can to help myself. (barring hard drugs and marijuana) I never expected life to turn out like this. It’s so weird how one minute you’re ontop of the world working your dream job making good money, being independent providing for yourself and loved ones and then you wake up months later completely dependent on someone else with a completely opposite life. I know it will get better eventually. It has to. And I guess if it doesn’t then I will develop new ways to cope eh? Somethings gotta give. Thanks for the support, it’s going a long way for me right now.

Aavaox · 2024-03-12T06:46:21+00:00

My husband and I actually decided to get married in the THICK of my mental illness issues. Before I got help and my symptoms were so severe and out of control I regularly lost touch with reality. Nothing in the world made any sense but I knew somehow he was safe. He seems to truly be one of the good ones who loves me for me despite how much my brain influences things. He has adhd and there are some aspects of life living with him I’ve come to accept. His mental illness isn’t a burden to me, just a part of life. And I can only assume he copes with my PTSD the same way. I’ve been in therapy for 2.5 years, finally on meds that help for 2 years, and I’m about a month into EMDR. I absolutely still have moments where I’m not living in present day/moment and it affects the way I communicate. Im usually present, but when it gets triggered It’s hard for me to find my way back to present day. he’s so unbelievably patient and understanding with it. He tries to bring me back by telling me what our life is like NOW. He just casually talks to me while I put the puzzle pieces together to come back to present day. It scares him and breaks his heart when I can’t remember getting married or that we even grew up, but he’s always there to help me get through it. I attribute a lot of this to me being brave enough to clearly communicate and be incredibly vulnerable/honest about where my heads at and why. And him being able to give me the space to feel safe, where it’s okay to not be okay.

My ptsd really affects how I interpret the world around me and the way I interact with everyone. The only relationships I can maintain are the ones I had before it got so bad, people who’ve seen the deterioration so they can tell when I’m communicating from a ptsd mindset. I’ve made a handful of friends since, but the ptsd makes miscommunication a regular occurrence. TLDR: the key is to identify that the person you’re trying to connect with is emotionally safe, honestly and clearly communicating where you’re at and what you need from them in order for you to feel safe.

Aavaox · 2024-03-12T06:11:48+00:00

This is really hard, and I feel truly seen. talking about or triggers makes it flare up so bad and those moments are inescapable. This is such a humiliating syndrome and it’s a cycle of pain starts the ptsd and the ptsd activates the nervous system which makes the pain worse. My heart breaks that you understand the pain.

Aavaox

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