So I used to have an arm…

So I mentioned I was having a blood test in my last post. These are just routine bloods for my midwife. Luckily Western Elms has a blood clinic which is great as it saves trekking to the hospital for what is, after all, a 5 minute appointment. I’ve had LOADS of blood tests in the last few months as Craig had been concerned about my lack of appetite and how it might affect our chances of conceiving. I must have given 8 pints of blood in our quest for answers. Turns out I conceived easily and my lack of appetite was down to the fact I hated the taste of my own cooking. Never the less the battery of tests has prepared me beautifully for the trials of pregnancy so I won’t moan.

So with blood tests, I usually bruise a little but am otherwise okay…… until now. This time I was running slightly late. As I haven’t confided to work about my pregnancy yet, I’ve been covertly fitting in appointments around work commitments and this time I only had a tiny window to get to the doctors and back. As I was 10 minutes late for the test, I was already apologising and shrugging off my cardigan as I entered the nurse’s office. Expecting to see the usual nurse (spitting image of Heather from Eastenders), I was shocked to see she had been joined by a new guy. Heather’s friend turned out to be Ben, a student doctor gaining some work experience, Although he looked about 10, I figured he had to learn how to operate a syringe at some point so agreed to him taking the blood.

NEVER AGAIN. My arm was literally caked in blood after the 8 vials had been taken. The “sharp scratch” turned out to be a nasty shock. The tourniquet fell off mid way through and as Ben went to catch it, the needle fell out. My vein was a mini fountain spurting blood at the wall. I was too polite to tell him to stop so let him carry on but it really hurt. By the end of the day I was feeling really faint, and Craig said I had turned white.

Okay, I might be exaggerating slightly. This is a blood test and I’m sure the labour in 7 months will be ten times worse, but this was truly painful. I’m left looking like a victim of domestic abuse and I’ll have to cover it up at work. Check out this for a bruise!