Ouch!

Yesterday I went for my company annual health screening. It's very basic stuff...height and weight, blood pressure and blood sugar. I have never been afraid of blood tests because usually things go very smoothly, but yesterday was the worst experience I ever had...

I stuck out my left arm as usual for the nurse to take blood. Once the needle poked into my skin, I knew something wasn't right cos it was more painful than usual. And no blood was coming out into the collection tube. Then she started poking the needle around to try and coax the blood out. Nothing. She tap tap near the place she poked. Nothing. She moved the needle a bit more. Still nothing. She pressed my skin. Nothing! By then the pain had become almost unbearable and I didn't want her pushing the thing around to 'search for my vein' anymore. I told her, "Very painful! Can you try my other arm?"

I guess she had no choice so she withdrew her needle from my poor arm and proceeded to take blood from my right one. Aiyo...still painful but at least some blood was coming out. But it was flowing very slowly so she just kept pulling at the syringe! Oi! Painful leh!

Finally my ordeal was over...terrible...and she had the cheek to tell me that my vein was not very visible. So why didn't the previous nurses ever have any problems huh? And I later found out from my colleagues that I wasn't the only who encountered this. Yikes...