What Now

I was seriously going to give blood during the blood drive they are having here today. Granted, I have the needle issue, but I was going to try and get through it so I could help some people.

I had to change my mind after last night.

Part of our ongoing mission to get life insurance was that we had to get a short physical where they planned to take blood pressure, height/weight, urine, and blood. No big deal, right? The nurse was waiting on us when I got home yesterday, and since Steve was caught up at work, I went first. Everything was fine up until the blood draw. The nurse was really nice and she was talking to me through the whole thing, which was keeping me calm when the needle came out. She stuck it in my left arm and filled a vial that seemed about the size of a hot dog. Then she reached for a smaller vial and stuck it onto the needle and nothing happened. She said 'What?' and started pushing at the place in my vein that the needle was sticking in. Still nothing. Then the needle slipped out of my arm. Lovely. So she apologized and grabbed another small purple vial, but had to insert a new needle into my right arm. She jammed it home and STILL nothing happened. We were very confused. So she started apologizing and telling me it couldn't possibly be anything wrong with me since she had already taken my blood with no problem. Then she proceeded to slip the needle almost it's full length into my vein, and then start to push on it. Still nothing. I could see blood coming up around the needle, but none of it seemed to be getting into the vial. So she took the needle out of my right arm and got another small vial. By then I was about to faint, but I felt so sorry for the nurse because she honestly seemed upset that these vials weren't filling with blood. So she went back outside and got another sealed pack of implements and brought them in. She then stuck another needle into my left arm, which started to pull my vein and really hurt, and still, the blood didn't go in. at that point I was starting to get nauseated, and the nurse's hands had started to shake, so she took THAT needle out of my arm and got yet another pack of needles and vials and went to work on my right arm again. She stuck the needle into the same spot that the last needle had gone in and FINALLY the vial filled up. Apparently she had gotten a shipment of blood vials that didn't have a correct vaccum seal from her current company, so she had to get one of her original packs from another company and do the blood test.

This morning my inner arms look like I've been on the road with the Rolling Stones. If someone came at me with a needle for any reason at this point, I'd probably go Karate Kid on them.