Flattened Vein

There's just something about blood draw that somehow tend to create this block in my memory. It's a very specific block that prevents me from remembering to drink plenty of water before you go visit your local friendly nurse. I guess I've just always associated fasting with, NOTHING SHALL PASS THROUGH THE MOUTH other than words. I do well with remembering not to eat anything 12 hours prior just to be safe I tend brush my teeth 14 hours before and since I'm the lazy bum that I am, I don't eat after I brush my teeth. A) it tastes weird B) To re-brush takes to much effort. But at the same time I tend to forget to drink water...urgh...

So I started my day with sleeping in, yey! 1 extra hours goes a long way, the lab doesn't open until 9am and it really isn't worth for me to go into work for 15 minutes before I have to head back out again. So I arrive at the labs fashionably late (I do love my sleep) and found 3 other ladies there, the other 2 looks done and was waiting on the 3rd. Wow, the nurses were NOT having an easy time finding her vain, apparently the lady had not been drinking any liquid for the last century. They had to call in another more experienced nurse. The lady was not plump like me, she was thin so it was easy to see her vain, but getting the needle to GET to the vain was a whole separate issue, it was too flat. By the time I had arrived it looks like they've already been at it for a while. Lets just say 1/2 hour later I was still waiting for my turn. Finally 10 minutes after when I had originally planned to be at work by, it was my turn. I go to the back chamber, sit on the lovely chair while they clean up from the previous occupant. It looks like confetti littered the room, NYC's New Year Party in there. The nurse was a little, shall we say, frazzled, she was ready to just get my blood and get it over with. One minor problem I pointed out to her, "Erm, do you know what I'm being tested for." This stopped her for a moment, and you could see it in her expression "Oh yeah, I should check huh." She's young.

So for those who are not as familiar with the whole blood draw thing as I am, being the frequent visitor I'm turning out to be, I shall explain why I made a note of this in my blog. For blood works it's not as simple as stick a needle in and draw blood into some random test tube and send to lab, no no no... All those movies where they just randomly pull blood into a convenient tube of some poor hapless victim and can learn all these nifty things from just that is not ENTIRELY true. If you've ever seen the test tubes at the doctors office/nurse's kits where they have colourful and sometimes stripped patterned tube tops, they actually serve a purpose other than aesthetics like the cute and cuddly patterns on nurse outfits. Each colour or pattern represents how each tube has been tempered. Another reason why when you're doing blood works they may take several different vials. Thus for me, I had 3 tubes and 2 of them were this nifty orange/black tiger stripped one. I wonder if they can make them like when you go to 回転寿司, those conveyor belt sushi restaurants, where once you're done they just count yup the different coloured/style of plates to get your totally bill. It's easier to figure out pricing on my side that way. However, it won't work 'cause there's just too many types of tests out there and some uses the same type of tubes.

Anyhow, after being thoroughly confused as to what the doctor had ordered for my blood test, the nurse sent me back to the doctor's office to ask for clarification. When I got there, the doctor's nurse just rolled her eyes and told me she'd do it herself. (THANK π) I trust her more. I made my little confession before she started, but since no one has yet to NOT find my vein I didn't think much of it. Well, she found it just fine. . . but nothing came out of it (yeah it moved on her) plus the fact that she used a freakin' HUGE needle. Okay, not as big as the ones used during blood donations, but still relatively large. Before she pulled back out she felt around and determinded, yeah my vein went into hiding. I would have also had I seen that big needle. Good to know that my veins, if not my head has good self preservation mode. Anyhow, she went off to get a smaller needle before she attempted the other arm. Not finding a good one she went right to the one on the back of the hand. Now, I wonder why can't they just START with that one? Easy to see and works just the same. . . Anyhow, this brought up another point with me. I personally don't mind needles in my arm, unless we're talkin' local anesthetics then O U C H, but once the needle goes in I'm okay. But how do drug addicts DO this? it HURTS piercing the skin, why would a none masochist do it over and over again? It was a point I brought up to the nurse and she agreed. Then again, seeing as we're both in a health clinic under our own steam and not rushed here, we obviously don't have the mindset of an addict.

Anyhow, that's my story on what I did yesterday morning before I went off to work.


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