I had to have a couple of blood draws last week. The first one had to be late at night, and the only station open at that time was in the hospital, pretty close to the ER actually. (Pleasant associations, to be sure.) Right, so my dad came with me. I step back behind the little curtain and the woman gets the needle in my vein and starts filling up Vacutainers. Yay. She’s just about finished when I start getting woozy. Oh god, don’t think about it; think about something else, I tell myself, to no avail. She bandages me up and then asks me if I’m okay. I’m white as a sheet and sweating bullets and the room is going fuzzy around the edges…so before I can reply she yells for help. A couple of other guys in maroon scrubs walk in and one freaks the fuck out. I tell him I’ll be okay in a minute, but he ignores me and PRESSES THE BLUE “CODE” BUTTON on the wall. Fucker. 3 seconds later, 10 additional people dash into the room, including at least one doctor, along with a gurney and a crash cart. All because blood makes me faint. I didn’t even actually faint. So embarrassing. Grrrah. And then I was all yay, I get to do this again in the morning. But, when they took my blood in the morning, I was totally fine. No dizziness or anything. Poop on a stick. I never used to be this squeamish. Is it possible that the Concerta does this to me?
Tony felt sorry for me, but he thought it was kind of funny. He kept saying, oh it’s okay, this happens to my son too. Like that makes it better.
*Sigh* Ain’t it great? I have a new doctor, or rather an additional doctor. The blood draws were for more genotyping–serotonin receptors and transporters, which should help us figure out why none of the stupid meds work for me. Also they took blood to look at trough levels of medication in my blood. See if there’s something funky in they way I metabolize the damn drugs. They had to take blood at the lowest levels of medication in the day, i.e. right before I take the next dose. Since I take stuff both when i wake up in the morning and before I go to bed at night, I had to have two separate blood draws. Bleh. Anyway, appointment with that doctor again tomorrow to get the results from this whole mess.
Yep, so that’s my summer. How’s yours?