By the Pricking of My Thumbs

I had to go get my annual physical today.  The worst part for me is always getting my blood drawn, although getting on that scale is a close second.  But I HATE having blood drawn.  Now if you are of the squeamish persuasion, I am giving you fair warning that you might want to stop reading now.  Otherwise, hang in there.  It isn't going to be that bad.  As I was saying, I think most people who dislike blood tests are those who just happen to have difficult veins.  In my case, I have tiny veins.

Luckily, I have a little skin tag about 1/4 inch above where they always find the good vein so I can usually point to the spot where they need to give it a try.  And I always tell them "you only get one try.  If you miss, my veins go into hiding."

I also sing when they draw blood.  Over the years, I've built up quite a reputation as the singing patient.  I take requests.  Today they asked for a summery song.  I suggested an Irish song instead.  So I sang "Mrs. Murphy's Chowder" for them and then transitioned right into "The Wearing of the Green."  Darn, but she had a lot of tubes to fill up and since they have to use a butterfly clip on me (very small needle), it takes forever.  I went through all the verses I knew.   When she was finally done, they asked me if I was Irish.

"Nope, just had a grandmother who knew all the old Irish tunes so I grew up hearing those old songs," I replied.  "Besides, I like to sing peppy songs because I figure it might influence you all to draw the blood quicker."

So anyway, I was playing with my photo editing software and realized that when I click on the "auto contrast" feature, I can get this effect.  It makes my "wound" look so much worse than it really is.   I could tease my hair to stand up wildly, put heavy white powder on my face and walk around saying "Out, out, dang spot!"

Look what happens when I hit the "Auto Color" button.  Whee!  I'm a blue blood.  I can hear the nurses saying now, "Poor thing.  She's so regal that her skin is almost translucent.  We hate to mar her perfection."

But the reality of it is that it was all over in less than 5 (ok, maybe 3) minutes and I'll just end up with a tiny bruise.  Hopefully everything is good to go for another year, too.  And just think....at least this year you aren't looking at horrible pictures of poison ivy rashes.  I've learned my lesson.  I make the Commander pull all the weeds now.

Project 365 - June 16, 2010 (Day 20)

It was a day for annual physicals and blood tests.  Ugh!