P who's a medical student told me that they have recently been shown how to draw blood for blood testing. They will have a practical exam this coming week and he was complaining how it's been difficult to find a "victim" to practice on. While telling me all this, he was busy preparing the cotton, alcohol, syringe, and tourniquet which was making me apprehensive by the second. Sure enough, a moment later he took my arm and started feeling for the vein. Me! OMG! I'm scared of needles even at my age. Every year when I have my annual physical exam and have blood drawn for a blood test, I sit in the chair, grip the arms of the chair tight and close my eyes until it's done.
But in the interest of helping him out in learning how to draw blood, I swallowed my fear, covered my eyes and started breathing deeply. To his credit, he was gentle. After 4 pokes though, 3 on my right arm and 1 on my left, he wasn't successful. So he called it quits for now.
That was last weekend. I thought it was over. Oh no was I wrong! The practical exam is this week. The medical student needed to get it right to pass the blood drawing exam. So once again, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. When it was over, I opened my eyes and he showed me the syringe, a fourth of it filled with my blood. At least THIS time he got it right. Then he took my blood pressure - 100/70. And listened to my heartbeat - normal. Counted my pulse (80 beats) - normal (within 60-90 beats per minute). Listened to my lungs - no signs of TB.
Whew! He'd better ace that practical exam and treat me to dinner after.
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