Yesterday, I had to get some blood work done. When I went in for my annual doctor visit in August, my doctor realized that it had been a few years since I had a comprehensive blood workup done. So she placed an order for everything to be checked out.
I’ve mentioned my issue with needles before, and getting blood work done is one of the things that worries me the most. At least shots are quick. Blood draws take time. And for this blood draw, they had to take 9 vials of blood! That’s a lot (at least to me).
I knew I needed to get this done, but it didn’t make it any easier in the morning. My original plan was to go first thing in the morning to get it done, but I chickened out. I remembered that you should drink a bunch of water before having blood drawn so I told myself I needed to stay home and do that.
I finally left my house around noon and when I got to the hospital, there was a long line. You have to take a number and wait your turn, and when I arrived they were on 31 and I had 64. So I spent about an hour trying to read my book.
When it was finally my turn, I explained to the guy drawing my blood that I’m a faint risk. They reclined the chair so I wouldn’t fall off (it’s happened before). As soon as I put my arm out I started crying pretty hard. I wasn’t scared of the needle as much as I was scared of fainting. But somehow, I made it through the entire thing without passing out!
I was having trouble staying conscious. My vision was getting fuzzy and dark and I know that’s how it gets before I faint. But I was able to stay awake. I have to say that the lab guys there were extremely nice to me as well. The guy who was taking my blood kept counting down the vials (that was so helpful!) and there was another guy talking to me the whole time and fanning my face (I don’t know if that helped but it was a distraction).
After I was done, they actually told me that I did well for a person who has issues with needles. A lot of the time with people like me, they have to hold down their arm because they want to move it. At least I kept still.
I’ve gotten the results back already from 6 of the vials and everything is good! I know that with my weight there are concerns about diabetes but my blood sugar was on the low side of normal. I’m still waiting on my cholesterol but that has historically been low (and if it isn’t this time, I just will have to work on adjusting my diet).
While I’m proud of myself for not fainting, I’m still a little embarrassed that I have such a tough time with needles. While I was getting blood work done in LA, my badass mom had to get blood work done in Northern CA (they had to make sure she was ok for her next chemo treatment and she is). I talked with my mom after we both were done and I know that she didn’t even flinch at the needle. She’s always been tough like that. I wish some of that would have been passed down to me.
But for now, I’m just glad that I didn’t have to tell you all about how I fainted at the blood lab (or how I fell off the chair like I did the last time).
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