We all go through it sooner or later.

The doctor wants us to get a blood test.  It could be as simple as checking our cholesterol levels or maybe something more serious.  Maybe it’s just one those blood test you get because you’re on certain medication and your physician wants to monitor its effects.

Whatever it is it means hiking down to the local lab, waiting in the waiting room with a dozen other people waiting to get a needle stuck in their arm, and then…getting a needle stuck in your arm.  Sometimes, if you’re luck, you can skip step one and just walk down the hall in your doctor’s office to get the needle stuck in your arm.

Unfortunately for me, finding that one great vein to plunge that needle into and draw some blood is easier said than done.

Yeah.  I’ve learned to drink lots of water (which really, really,really makes me need to pee) in order to plump up my veins and make them easier to stick. Sometimes that works.  Sometimes not.

Sometimes I get a great lab tech who knows just how to do an arm that has veins that roll and are just generally hard to find.  Most of the time I get techs that need to stick me two or three times in order to get the needle in the right place so blood will start coming out of my arm.

The Red Cross is the same way.  I’ll go through their whole screening procedure only to get someone who can’t quite get the needle in the right place.  In fact, the last time I tried to donate blood no one could get it (the techs almost always call in the more experienced ones to help out)

They were nice enough to give me a nice parting gift and some cookies.  Still, it doesn’t quite make up for being used as a pin cushion.

Donating blood is one thing. It’s voluntary. The blood test is another.  I really need to get it done for my doctor.  So I roll the dice and hope and pray I’ll get someone who knows how to deal with difficult veins that roll.

It’s a real pain.