My chemo of Cisplatin for 8 weeks was done once a week via the arm. This is very hard for me to admit here, but the chemo oncology nurses were probably the most adept and ironically compassionate of all the medical team. Goodness knows I don't want to go back though.

I've had my share of blown veins though, mostly through blood draws. There's nothing worse than dealing with a huge bruised up mess on the arm when you are already feeling low. Mentally, I try to take note on which person on the staff I've had satisfactory needle sticks with and cross my fingers that these are the folks who give them to me in the future. I also try to avoid the ones that are uncertain, clumsy and painful.

Not that I'm an expert, but when they set up my chemo, they generally try to make sure constantly that the IV drip is set up properly and there's nothing wrong with the injection site before they proceeded with the actual drips. It seems that they took many percautions to make sure it was in a vein and the drip was unhindered. They constantly came in to check on me to feel the arm and check the machine.

Jen