I have polycythemia vera, I get phlebotomies and take 81mg aspirin a day. I had a phlebotomy yesterday and after the nurse took the needle out of my arm it pored blood out. It took 20 minutes of pressure to contol the bleeding. I thought I was going to bleed to death. The lab was closed but the nurse said, she would like to see what my platlet count was. She told me to get to the er if the bleeding came back on. What was with her concern about the platelets?