Tuesday 8 September 2009

Day 343 of 365: So Irrational


My irrational fear of the day would be related to the third little arrow down. Yep. I had to make a cameo at Russell's Hall today for my 26-week blood-draw. Since I started this pregnancy with "extra fluff" resulting in a higher than wanted BMI, they need to make sure baby and me aren't susceptible to Gestational Diabetes. So this morning I had to eat a bowl of cereal and piece of toast, wait 2 hours and then shimmy on down to the hospital to have them draw blood. Fun...right?!

There were only two people in the waiting room this time -- trumping the 20-minute wait I had a few weeks ago. As soon as I grabbed my ticket and got seated, I hear an automated recorded British woman..."ticket seventy-one, curtain number twoooooo, please."

I always like to give the disclaimer up front that I don't like needles. Perhaps this fools me into thinking they will be more gentle. The woman behind magical curtain number 2 today had apparently adjusted my tourniquet so tightly however, that the first vile shot right off across the room -- which is SO comforting when you have an IRRATIONAL FEAR OF NEEDLES to begin with and look forward to the very second the cotton wool is placed over the pin-sized hole in your arm and you can run screaming from the lab walk away sensibly and leave the memory behind you.

Total time wasted today on said irrational fear: less than 2 minutes (over and done with...done and dusted).

*takes a bow*

I'll take my gold star and lolly for being a brave girl now, please.

2 comments:

Christine (Rainy Day Reads) said...

You should ask my mom about me getting blood taken when it was time for me to start Kindergarten! You know when they prick your finger to get a little bit of blood? Well the story goes that it took something like 4 nurses to hold me before they could get the blood. Then one of them asked me if I wanted a smiley face band-aid and I said 'I don't want your damn band-aid'. This is the story that is told to this day.. word for word. I was five.

Oh and then when I was something like eight the doctor thought it would be great fun to keep my attention on him while a nurse came up beside me to give me a shot. This of course because I am scared of needles and they would just give me the shot as a surprise. Well until I see her coming at me and I turn really fast. Unfortunately the needle was in my arm and then broke off in my arm! My arm was swollen for a week and they had to pull it out with tweezers.

Great times. :)

Luckily when I moved to Texas my job would have blood drives and if you gave blood you could wear jeans to work that Friday. So my fear of needles slowly vanished because nothing was going to stop me from getting to wear jeans to work once every three months! lol Of course when they have to do the finger prick to test the iron in your blood I still cringe as that is the worst part! :)

Meg said...

You have just beaten my story about the time I was 4 or 5 and the doc tried to give me a shot in the butt. Similar to your story, several people had to hold me down...but ole doc still got a Strawberry Shortcake size 4 in the nuts!