Blood Draw Tuesday

I didn’t notice it at first but one of the boys and his mom were called to the back. Then shrieking and blood curdling screams, loud and often accompanied by tearful pleading. It was horrible, painful to hear. This kid did not want blood drawn.

Blood draw from my left arm.

Blood test today. Why? The oncologist wants it. That’s enough.

“Go to Quest,” he tells me every time. Fine. Quest it is. Wonder if he’s a stockholder?

The waiting room was crowded when I walked in. It was as if it had been cast. An Asian couple played with their six month old. A older woman (like my age) sat in a corner wearing a mask. There were separately two moms with sons.

I didn’t notice it at first but one of the boys and his mom were called to the back. Then shrieking and blood curdling screams, loud and often accompanied by tearful pleading. It was horrible, painful to hear. This kid did not want blood drawn.

A few minutes later he and mom exited. By this time the six month old was screaming at the top of her lungs. She didn’t know what hit her until it was too late.

It’s tough to take. The poor baby has no clue what’s going on except it hurts. The bigger kid knew what was going to happen and panicked.

I was that kid. Absolutely.

My turn now. I walked to the back past the currently quiet screaming kid, back in the lab and now with his mom in a side hallway.

I invited him to watch my draw and see it was no big deal. Uh huh. Right. I’m not Ward Cleaver.

The blood draw was very easy today, just three small vials. Once the needle’s in it doesn’t matter anyway. No pain. That was unexpected.

The kid was still pacing as I walked out. I feel bad he’s agitated. I feel bad a kid needs a blood test.

3 thoughts on “Blood Draw Tuesday”

  1. Geoff, what you did today for that child was, to say the very least,
    MENCHEDIK❗

    What you’ve done and you’re still doing for yourself and your family is amazingly wonderful under very difficult circumstances. As a weather afficionado I appreciate you, but as you continue your fight you are incomparable.
    Mike Krauss –Woodmont

  2. The doctors here, in CT. also prefer Quest—not sure why. I generally don’t use them. I use our local lab that is in conjunction with one of the area hospitals.

  3. That kid was me. Once in 7th grade I needed a blood draw for a mono test, and I went completely batsh*t. My mom left me in the room with the phlebotomist and the crew of large people who had rushed in to help hold me down, went back out into the waiting room, and disowned me when someone asked her whose kid that was. “I dunno.”

    (That kid is still me.)

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