Try getting more sunshine to build hemoglobin.
My veins are stable, and I’ve never been stuck more than once. I’ve sworn to myself though never to let it go past two misses from the same tech. It represents incompetency, and says they will keep on chewing up my arm as long as I let them.
Funny isn’t it how a couple of incompetents stood around telling you how wrong you are about diet?
I’m one of those types that is really hard to get a vein when drawing blood. This was before keto, and continues into today. It has nothing to do with keto…my veins are hard to get to…period.
I always warn them when I need to draw blood…I tell them that it is difficult for the “normal” technician. I have also rejected technicians, right before they tried to stick me with a needle. I watch what they do…if they look like a novice at it, I tell them to stop and request for someone else.
Ugh!!! When I was 70 pounds overweight, it was It was easy to draw my blood because the fat anchored my rolling veins. When I lost 70 pounds I have to tell the phlebotomist to anchor my veins so it doesn’t roll away from the needle when I get my blood drawn
This is even more essential if I donate blood since the size of the needle is bigger than say a butterfly needle for a simple tube or two
I would return and ask them to use a more solid technique or provide a different And more experienced phlebotomist for you. If they ask you about your diet, I would tell them that it is nutritionally adequate for you and your doctor agrees.
Good luck and I have learned to stop talking to medical professionals who are yanking my chain. I look them right in the eye and tell them how I expect to be treated, and I let them know that I am also a medical professional myself.
Sorry this happened. There are simple and easy test to test your iron requirements just before a donation unit is drawn. They should’ve just run that test and said yes or no based on the outcome of the test and their criteria for cut off
Oh ok, well what I am angry about is not my Iron or my veins. I always had bad veins and I donate blood since about 15 years. Why? Well… thats a very personal thing but to say the least: because its the right thing to do and it saves lifes. Maybe the life of someone you love…
However I am also not concerned about my iron. There is a minimum amount of Iron you need to have or they will not let you. And I was above that. My iron is lower than others, but not low enough to donate blood. So aaaaallll ok there. Plus at my last doctors check I was told that we need to take care of it and I am taking Iron supliment since then. Its just the stupidity in claiming that a diet where you simply cut out carbs causes you to miss iron (especially with all the red meat)
My point was how people who are doctors and medical professionals spread lies and bully people. Saying carbs are essential or lowering carbs in you diet causes your veins to become loose. My point is that someone who might not have a comunity like this and read every book out there might have been kicked of the horse. Not every obese person has tons of selfworth and trust in what they are doing.
I am sorry but why? Becaue I have a blue arm or met some twats? Sure not… a lot of people need blood and I am in perfect medical condition to do so. Giving blood saves lifes! And we need people to do it. Plus its healthy for the donor as well.
I will not stop doing the right thing and helping others because some people acted shitty…
Low iron…what.
Apparently all my biochemistry classes were different from hers. Bleh. Just prove them wrong next time 
Even when I was skinny I was a hard draw. That’s genetics and biology…not how many carbs you eat. What. I’ve never even heard that nonsense.
well, that sucks indeed!!! so sorry you went through that.
I had a terrible experience once at a clinic. I went through 5 people trying to draw blood from me. In the end, I fainted, those idiots never got the blood…such a pack of incompetent idiots.
Rant on all you want! This place is a safe place to rant. Unfortunately, medical professionals (I would be using that word very loosely as to the one you got…maybe she needs more carbs to get her professionalism up to a higher standard…) are mostly trained the same way. Most of them have good intentions but can only go with what they know, regardless of whether the science backs it up or not. Fact: some of the blood drawing training is way less than it needs to be. Been there, done that!
Is there any place else where you can donate blood without running into that same person? And, you might consider spending more time and giving platelets instead of whole blood - not as hard on your iron levels.These save lives, too, and often there is a great need for them. And trust me, no way would they have taken your blood if you didn’t pass the iron tests…
I love this bit because it shows what happens when dogma and pre learnt behaviours control you when you refuse to open your mind. Whether a nurse or a doctor, they are scientists by training and all science should be open to proper studies even if it goes against what you have been told or you think may happen.
Unfortunately- well actually I normally think its a good thing- there is only one institution to donate blood too and thats the German red cross. So I will meet her again. Next time though I will have lost even more weight and face her with an even bigger grin 
I do belive that the blood plasma donations are here done only at universities, but I will ask. My iron is simply low because I had 3 kids and never had my blood tested before the beginning of my Keto journey so never felt the need to fill the depots up again. Its always been low, but not dangerously low and I am already filling up on iron so it will be all good in a months of time or 2… I will eat some more steak
Steak is the cure. 
It stunned me that she treated me as if I am a total idiot. People who know me know that I never, never ever walk around saying “oohhh I have been to university and have a degree in Biochemistry!!! Theeeeree!” But bloody hell we do the work in the labs and the research to put it in a book for them doctors to learn and repeat. Not that I don’t honor doctors! I do! I just hate it when they treat us, who do THEIR work and research, like idiots.
Actually they should not treat anybody like this because like Richard, who is a software developer, some people coming from a total different background have more knowledge about the issue as doctors and biochemist together. I learn from him every day and I should habe known a lot better.
So I did not mean to wave my “I am a scientist” flag- especially as I don’t work in that workfield anymore… I just ment to say that they don’t even stop spreading their stupidity in front of people who are clearly qualified to know what they are talking about 
In your degree how much did they cover in terms of this whole debate, Krebs cycle etc … how many people on your course, the students and lecturers still believe Carbs are ‘essential’ to be eaten ?
Like I said: I only started to see things differently after being told about the ketogenic diet by @Groversaurus and ask him, I have been fighting with him for days slapping all what I have learned about metabolism around his ears doubting every word he said. Because simply as that we have NEVER been introduced to ketones as an alternative to glucose as a source of energy on a regular babsis.
I was actually stating that even we who been at Uni for years are very uneducated when it comes to the human metabolism. But still are generally as aducated as doctors when it comes to biochemical processes that we actually work on, different from them.
I think we need people like Richard at universities changing the outlook and create a big picture and stop digging in our very narrow workfields.
In those situations I think it’s worth showing people where they get their misinformation from.
The idea that we have an obligate need for carbohydrate comes from George Cahill’s “Starvation in man” study which tested the blood supply going into and out of the brain of a man being starved. In the first 24 hours his brain is needing 144g of glucose and his other glucose dependent tissue needs 36g - so he has to have 180g and he will eat 75g a day of his own lean mass to make it. And that freaks doctors out because as you get older maintaining as much lean mass as you can is a critical function of remaining healthy.
But in the same experiment 5-6 weeks later the same man has now adapted to running on fat and only needs 44g of glucose for his brain and is able to replace the rest of it’s energy requirements from a by product of burning fat - and it only uses 20g of protein a day.
NB: That 20g amount is specific to this man with his metabolic rate of 1500 kCal/day and his body fat. A man with more body fat doing more exercise would need to use less protein to make glucose. A leaner man doing less exercise would need to use more.
The original paper is behind this paywall www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM197003192821209
Wow, that’s awesome information. Thank you.
I think though that in cases like this people don’t actually want to hear the truth or want to be educated. They just want to be right and not think.
I am so sorry you went through that torture! I am an RN and unfortunately I see that behavior too often. I surely hope that kind of counseling is not happening frequently. God knows there is a real need for blood donors! Thank you for donating blood!! Hopefully there’s another place you can go to next time. 
