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Blood, Sweat and Tears

14 January 2004

It has been way too long since I updated this site. I think the combination of the job promotion plus holidays plus simply burning out on topics is to blame. I'm going to shoot for less frequent and shorter updates. That's better than no updates at all.

This week I had my blood drawn and the tech remembered me from the prior visit months ago. "Oh, hi, I remember you. You had the really sweaty blouse." Great, how nice of her to announce it in front of the other people getting tested.

I've never liked being prodded by needles so I'm always nervous for blood draws, and nervous means sweaty. Extra sweaty in my case. On top of that, that last time the needle stick made me faint and sick and I broke out in a cold sweat all over. Not only was my blouse drenched under my arms, but also on my back and chest except where my bra had soaked up sweat and left a "dry shadow" on my blouse. I ended up changing into a spare blouse I had in the car, but not without the tech noticing and commenting it had dried perspiration rings on it. Like that was something rare for me.

She continued, "And then I remember you were so wet under your arms that you wanted to change." She directed me to sit at the blood draw station. "Oh, please take off your jacket." I already knew what was hiding underneath. I was wearing a cotton turtleneck, not a wise choice given that I hate how heavy the fabric gets when wet, but when dressing that morning I had forgotten I was going to do the blood test later that day.

It felt like all eyes were on me as I slipped off the jacket. I didn't want to look down and check my pits. Maybe it wasn't too bad? But then the tech returned with the needle and tubes and said, "Oh, you poor thing, you're all sweaty again." Her eyes darted back and forth between my dank armpits.

"Yeah, I get a little nervous for these tests," I replied.

"Do you need to go back to work after this because you might want to change?" She looked, then held a hand up to her armpit and traced an imaginary circle with her finger, "Your perspiration stains are out to here." I felt myself blush as the other people in the room stared at me.

"Well, we'll see." Afterward I did not want to stay around there any longer and left in a hurry. Fortunately with the test out of the way, my sweating returned to normal levels for the rest of the day. I think I'll have my blood drawn elsewhere next time.

For prior stories, see the archives.