I feel for you OP, the nurse should have never tried 5 times, usually after 2 attempts, some one else should try. For the record, as a nurse, the bigger and more pronounced the vein, the more typical to roll though.

Practice makes it perfect.

Your bitching about a nurse not getting after 5 times on your arm? Please. You dont know pain till you've been stuck so many times in your lifetime that they have to go for other spots like your feet, thigh, and neck. Nowadays id be happy if it only took5

I had a needle go through my vein, the nurse didn't take it out, instead she dug around in my arm till it straightened out..

That happened to me when I was donating blood for the second time. She said my veins were "ready", then she missed multiple times. She wriggled the needle while it was inside. Then since she couldn't do it on that arm, she went on to the other one.

Don't you hate when "professionals" do that?

This one time, a trainee was told to take blood. She stabbed my left arm eleven times and right twelve. An experienced nurse then had to rip her off of me while the trained yelled like a three year old, "No, stop! I can do it!"

Heroin addicts have better aim

My home town hospital has a 4 stick rule, if they don't bit after 4 times they send you home and tell you to come back in two days. My veins are near impossible to hit, so I always ask for the most experience nurse. Try it next time :)

Well... don't feel too bad. Last time I was at the hospital, I ended up getting stuck with a needle nine times(literally, I actually counted), by about four different people. They got the IV in on the fifth time but when I went for the CAT scan, it messed up. So guess who got stuck four more times, and without success? I know your pain, OP, I know your pain.