Dehydration and blood tests

At my last blood test a few days ago, the lab tech noted that my veins were hard to find, and the fact that I was getting really bruised from the repeated tests wasn't helping.

I had just assumed that the hideous bruising was inevitable, since I'm on anticoagulants now. However, the tech pointed out that dehydration indirectly leads to more bruising, because it's harder for the techs to find the vein.

The tech urged me to drink more water, and I've been enthusiastically complying for the past two days. And I'm happy to report that at my blood draw this morning, it made a huge difference! The vein popped right up, the blood draw was easier, and, 8 hours later, I can tell I'll be a lot less bruised tomorrow.

Even better: my INR jumped up .5 to 2.3 today. Did better hydration play a role? Well, I'm sure it couldn't have hurt.