Blood Test

Last weekend, I went to the clinic lab to get my blood taken as my physician told me to do so (read this post for more story). I told the receptionist that I had an appointment, and then she asked me to wait while she processed the necessary paperwork. I had a bad memory of getting my blood taken, so I felt like waiting for my turn to be called into the torture chamber. Haha... My boyfriend said "Don't worry. It will only hurt a few seconds when she poke you."

The nurse called me and I went to follow her. She asked me which arm I wanted her to take the blood from. I preferred the left arm, since I used my right arm more than the left one. She tried to find the vein on both arms and she said it will be easier to do it on the right one. Oh well, I could insist to still use my left arm, but rather than being poked multiple times because she could not get it right the first time, which meant getting hurt multiple times, I let her do whatever she wanted to.

And then she said "I have two kind of needles here. I'll sterilize both and see which one works better." I wasn't sure how she would be able to tell which one worked better, but then I saw her taking one of them and moved closer to me and got ready to poke me. I was filled with terror. I thought, "Are you serious!? Are you going to do a trial-and-error on my arm!?" It would be ridiculous if she poked me with one needle, and then "Sorry, but this one does not work so let's try the other one..."

I saw the needle and it seemed to be smaller than what they used back in my elementary school days so that was good. As she tried to poke me, I looked away. I didn't think I could stand seeing my fresh blood flowing to the tube. I felt the pain for a few seconds, and the next few seconds, and the next few seconds, and the next few seconds... Huh!? My boyfriend lied to me!!! It hurt more than just a few seconds!!! I kept waiting and waiting when she would be done. She asked me, "Is everything ok?" I answered, "Oh yeah, no problem." If my boyfriend or my sister were the one who performed this, I would have yelled "That hurts!!! Stop it!" and then kicked them or so. But yeah, this was someone else so I needed to keep my image. Hahahahahaha... I just stayed quiet even though I felt the pain, and even though I could feel my blood getting sucked by the needle -__-;;

I heard her said "Okay, that works well." I looked at her direction and I felt so weak as I saw a tube full of maroon-colored blood. I looked away again. Gosh, it's good that I didn't look at it when she tried to take my blood, otherwise I would surely faint xD

It seemed that it was a success, because she told me everything was done and I could go. I still don't know though what she meant earlier about which needle worked better. I don't know if she already made the decision before she poked me, or if she really meant to do that trial-and-error thing. All in all, I'm glad everything was successful after the first try. And also I'm glad I only need to do this once a year (hopefully, if everything is good).