I'm not entirely sure that I'm not over reacting to this situation, but I certainly do need some feed back.

My clinic has six nurses, and I've seen each of them when I've been in for blood tests. Sometimes when things are really crazy, one of the scientists will come out of the lab and help with taking blood. Five of the six nurses are fantastic and I've never had problems with them taking blood. The scientists that I've seen to have blood taken have also been fantastic. It helps that I've got great viens, I'm an exceptionally easy person to take blood from, and all pathology collections I've had have been fine. Except for this one particular nurse at the clinic who inflicts great pain. She's fairly new (started in June last year), and is very nervous about taking blood, so she inserts the needle extremely slowly. As we all probably know from doing our own injections, the slower the needle goes in the more it hurts. I've spoken to her about this, but she does not change the way she takes blood.

It's not just the blood-taking pain issue that bugs me.

This was the nurse responsible for communicating with me the results of my blood test yesterday and ensuring I had further instructions from there. She was quite content to end the call after "your levels are fine and we need to see you again on Sunday". The call didn't end then because I just can't cope with not knowing what my numbers are, so I asked for them. Again, after giving me the numbers she was content to end the call. I am very used to having dosages adjusted after each blood test (it has happened with each blood test in each cycle due to my history of non-response or over-response), so I asked if there were any dosage changes. If this nurse had just said "you need to continue on your current dose", I'd have been completely screwed at this point. What she did say was "you need to continue on your current dose of 150 units". Problem being that I have not been on 150IU this cycle, I've been taking 200IU. When I questioned her on this, she double checked the paperwork and said I needed to reduce my dosage to 150IU.

There's a very fine line between me responding appropriately and over-responding. In fact, this is the first time I've ever had an appropriate response to puregon. I'm absolutely terrified at this point of what may have happened and what may happen in the future if this incompetent nurse continues as she has so far. She hurts like hell when she takes blood, and the only reason I got all the right information out of her yesterday is because of past experience I knew (sort of) which questions to ask. What if it was a patient not as experienced as myself? In particular, another one with this same tendency to hyperstimulate. I know my FS has several patients that are "difficult" like myself, and I absolutely shudder to think that this nurse being unable to convey all necessary information in a clear and accurate manner could cause someone to become ill.

Is it appropriate for me to say something to the clinic? If so, how? The whole situation is really difficult for me to deal with as my pre-existing anxiety problem is made MUCH worse by the presence of high levels of estrogen. Estrogen levels leading up to a normal ovulation are enough to trigger anxiety attacks in me, let alone the levels found in a stim cycle (lets not even think about how bad I get while hyperstimulating!)

Suggestions? Advice? Should I just continue on and grit my teeth if she's taking my blood and ensure that I always double check information with her on the phone? I probably can get through the cycle that way, but it's extra stress that I don't need.

Sorry this is so long.

BW