Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with veins

How messy are vampires?

GoingToShopping — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:39:06 -0800

What happens when someone gets stabbed in one of the main neck arteries with objects of varying dimensions? So I'm a big fan of both the TV show Dexter, and also general horror movies and the like. I've been getting very conflicting information! Dexter stabs his victims in the neck with a syringe before doing his handywork. I've also seen in various video games and movies a special type of "syringe gun" used to instantly deliver medicine.
This conflicts somewhat with horror movie depictions of arterial wounds in that seemingly even the smallest cut will send gallons of the ol' kroovy spewing about the room.
Of course there are issues of size related to the hole, but I'd always been under the impression that the neck veins were special and different from the others. In addition, I've never actually SEEN someone outside of a fictional setting use the neck vein to deliver drugs.
Can't someone inform me?

What are these bruises and how do I get rid of them?

wexford_arts — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:10:04 -0800

I know about spider veins (those tiny, flat blue/red/purple lines) and varicose veins (raised, lumpy veins). I know that these can be treated with laser or sclerotherapy. But what do you call faint blue bruising that seems to follow the path of blood vessels but is neither sharply defined nor raised? And how can you treat it? I've had a very faint permanent bruise on one leg for at least ten years, but it now seems to be spreading into an estuary of bruises. Is this just an amorphous set of spider veins, an early stage of varicose veins, or something else? Or is my skin is just getting thinner and these are normal blood vessels?

Why are my veins too small?!

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 08:21:42 -0800

Would prolonged laxative use cause my veins to become more narrow? A couple months ago when I tried to donate blood, I was turned away because my veins were too small to draw blood without causing major bruising.

They said that not drinking enough water was probably the cause of my small veins. However, I already consume probably a gallon of water a day, so I left somewhat confused.

Prior to this incident, I had been using laxatives (senna tea) daily for a few months in a lame attempt to lose weight. Could my use of laxatives have caused my veins to constrict? The only reasonable theory I could come up with was that the laxatives help flush water weight, so even though I was drinking more than enough water I was probably super dehydrated some how anyway.

I've since stopped the laxative use, and I'd like to try to donate blood again. Can my veins go back to regular, pre-laxative, blood-donating-size?

But I was also thinking that maybe my veins are just small to begin with; I've never donated blood before so it's not like I was successful in a previous blood donation attempt.

All I want to do is donate blood GOSH DANG IT! Anyone have any ideas on this? Any small veiners out there?

Are my painful new friends hemorrhoids?

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 11:25:27 -0800

Embarrassing medical question, re: hemorrhoids, are they or aren't they? Gross description within. There's already a lot of good advice about hemorrhoids on AskMeFi. What I have looks and sounds a lot like how hemorrhoids are described therein and elsewhere, however mine aren't on my anus, but lower, on my thighs. I'm almost certain these are inflamed veins, but I can't be sure. Only very slightly concerned it could some long-dormant STD or something else horrible.

Hemorrhoid treatments seem to work, if only briefly. They come and go, but often. I'm an out-of-shape large fat guy and there is a lot of friction that happens in that same spot, not to mention that I sit far more than I should. I'm broke and short on time, so I want to avoid an exploratory visit to the doctor if these turn out to be only hemorrhoids. My question, emphasized for those who skim text: Can hemorrhoids (or inflamed veins) crop up in places other than one's anus? My Google-fu fails so I thought I'd tap the MeFites. Thanks in advance.

My veins suck

Joh — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 22:00:24 -0800

How can I make drawing blood easier? I am one of those people that it is difficult to draw blood from. Its hard to find a vein, and even when one is found, it usually yields very little, if anything. The usual procedure is that I warn the nurse of this, they use a butterfly needle, and after trying both arms twice they sometimes go in through the back of my hand. The whole procedure usually ends up taking half an hour or more. When I used to give blood they eventually told me not to come back as it wasn't worth all the time to get less than half a bag!

I took this is as an occasional inconvenience, since I am not scared of needles, and it doesn't really hurt much. However, now that I am having regular blood tests I would like to make the procedure easier and less time-consuming for everyone involved (I feel bad for the nurse mostly!). Is there anything I can do beforehand to increase the volume of my veins, or bring them to the surface? Would exercising shortly beforehand help?

Ahh! I have blood!

limeonaire — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 19:05:54 -0800

BloodFilter: How do new blood cells make their way out of bones? Help this anatomy-challenged Mefite understand! This may seem like a silly question. But I've Googled like crazy, and I've still been unable to find anything that will explain in minute detail how exactly the blood cells created in humans' bone marrow make their way out of the bones.

I've found the Wikipedia stub about hematopoiesis, but that only explains how blood cells are formed, not the path they take to get out of the bones.

So how does it work? Do blood cells make their way out of "pores" or "channels" in the spongy part of the bone? That was the best guess my friends and I could come up with—but we don't know if it's correct. And even if it is correct, it still doesn't explain how the cells get into the bloodstream. Are there veins that directly abut the bone? If so, how do the blood cells move into the veins—do they somehow go through the blood vessel wall?

I never took an anatomy class, and the only biology I had was eight years ago—I took physics courses in college. Please forgive my ignorance!

Veins moving when I work out. Help.

dino terror — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 20:01:11 -0800

When I work out, sometimes my veins move as I do reps. It feels uncomfortable. It doesnt always happen though... Is it because Ive been doing reps incorrectly, or will this lead to damage to the veins if I continue? For example Ive got a big vein that starts to become visible at my elbow joint and travels the length of my forearm. When I do pullups this vein gets twanged like a guitar string or something, somehow.