Does Age Matter?

This morning at the 9HealthFair I entered the room where blood would be drawn. Registration and paying had been handled rapidly and now I faced a woman who would take my blood. I had a moment of anxiety when I saw the wrinkled face of the nurse. Then I chastised myself for being so critical, age should not make a difference. The woman probably had a lot of experience and would do a good job.

First, it was as if she had problems finding my vein. She got the needle and stuck it into the bend of my arm and a deep pain made me wince. Then she said, "The blood is not flowing fast enough and had me lower my arm to see if the blood would come out faster." In all the years that blood has been drawn, I have never felt any pain, other than the initial prick and sometimes two vials are filled with my blood. She pulled the needle out and said, "I got half a vial and I don't think that is enough to test." I wanted to say that if she didn't know what she was doing she shouldn't have volunteered, but I kept quiet.

A man walked up in a doctor's white coat and said, "Here, let me help you. I will draw the blood." The woman must have seen a panic look on my face because she said to me, "You don't have to do this, if you don't want to, it's okay if you don't do the test." I replied, "I came in specifically for the blood test so it would be silly of me to leave without the test being completed." What I really wanted to say was, "When I saw you were an older woman, I wondered about you when I sat down, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt."

The man was wiping my other arm with an alcohol swab and he said, "I will do another draw and you won't feel a thing. I have lots and lots of experience and nobody has every complained." My remark was, "Yes but she looks like she also has lots of experience and she hurt me." He put the needle in, I did not feel a thing and almost immediately he had a full vial of my blood.

She taped cotton over the needle hole as the man left to work in his own section of the room. I wondered if he keeps an eye on the woman and rushes in to help when he sees she has messed up!  She began to fill out the tags that would be stuck to my vial. She had both vials in her hand and I had an image pop into my head where she tossed the full vial and kept the bad one. I said, "Make sure you toss the half full vial away and not the one he just took."  Looking at a vial in her hand she mumbled,  "Yes, this is the one I toss and this is the one I label." 

I know that getting older is no fun. I know that I have slowed down quite a bit. I am not as active as I once was. And I think the woman should give up trying to draw blood because she has certainly lost her touch!

While at the Fair I found out a few things. I found out  that my blood pressure is good, oxygen level is great, I have shrunk a couple of inches, and when weighed I was not told I needed to lose weight but I was directed to an area on how to plan healthy meals!