I am a hard stick.

Which means that my veins will do anything to avoid being stuck by a needle!  They roll, move, disappear and then if they are found the person with the needle ends up blowing the vein.  As a result my left arm looks worse than my right arm.

Luckily I have a port a cath in the left side of my chest that connects to an artery.  This gives direct access to a vein.  Before surgery they started an iv through my port.  After they put me out they accessed an artery in my wrist and put in a catheter for monitoring my blood pressure and oxygen level.  They also put another iv in the top of my left hand. 
The bruise at my wrist is from the access of the artery.

The bruise by my elbow is from a blood draw before surgery. 
The bruise in the middle is from a failed blood draw on Thursday morning.  He was able to get blood from my hand in between my thumb and pointer finger.  (no bruise)

Friday morning when they want more blood, my awesome nurse Janis tried to get some from my port and my iv.  This did not work, I tried to convince them that I did not have blood.  The person taking the blood pulled up a chair and took her time to find a vein.  She got one right above the last successful stick.  This blood sample showed that my red blood counts were low and I received two units of donor blood.

Saturday morning was the last blood draw.  I was not looking forward to it.  The guy came in and started preparing things.  I asked if he was using his smallest needle.  He did.  I told him to pull up a chair.  He did.  He looked and felt all over my arm.  I showed him were the last two successful sticks were.  He did do it right above the last draw. 
No more blood draws for a while.