The Phlebotomist From Hell

Today I had to have some blood drawn at the request of my Gastroenterologist, who I have an appointment with tomorrow. Anyway - I'm a big needle phobic. I absolutely dread getting stuck with any kind of needles - whether it's a shot, bloodwork or whatever - I just dread it - so much so, that I often will cancel appointments with the Doctor's office or the Dentist office if I know I'm due for a shot, etc. Unfortunately I couldn't put this blood draw off, as I'm already overdue for the visit with my Gastro Doctor.

So I decided that I would take part of my lunch hour to visit the lab for my blood draw. I had several different locations for labs that take my insurance and chose to go to the location that I always go to as I know how to get there, they are usually very friendly and I'm usually in & out of there within 5 or 10 minutes.

When I arrived, there weren't any patients there, other than some weirdo that was there for some type of drug screening (go figure), so I knew I wouldn't be there very long. The 3 employees that I saw up front were busy laughing & carrying on with each other, and after a few minutes of me making impatient type noises, one of them finally decided to see what I was there for. (Uhhh - it's a lab - I'm either there to get my blood drawn, or to pee in a cup) After typing in my information - she sent me to the back of the room, where a phlebotomist or whatever the hell he was, was waiting for me.

Remember - I'm needle phobic & at this point I was extremely nervous to the point where I was almost shaking. Nervously, I pleaded, "Please make sure this doesn't hurt" and with the shittiest tone I've heard in a while, he replied "well it involves a needle, so IT IS going to hurt!". Oh great - not only do I hate needles, but I also hate jackasses! He proceeded to wipe off my arm, asked me to make a fist & then jabbed the needle into my vein real hard - dammit! It hurt like shit! WHAT THE HELL? Did he have to be so rough?? He very hastily put a gauze pad over my "wound" and strapped a piece of bandage real tightly over my arm, and then just looked at me and said "have a nice day" with his same shitty tone!

WHAT AN ASSHOLE! You can bet one thing - if it were my kids or my mother (or anyone else in my family) there getting their blood drawn from this jerk and he had been that rough with them, I probably would have had to smack the crap out of him. JERK FACE!

Ok - so then I thought to myself, so maybe this guy's job really sucks. Maybe his boss is a complete idiot - or maybe his wife is a real bitch. Maybe he had a bad morning or a bad night last night or a bad week. Maybe someone in his family is sick and/or dying. And I felt kind of bad for him, like I half wanted to go back there and say "ok you're an asshole, but I'm not mad at you anymore because obviously something in your life made you extra grouchy today". And maybe after he said "have a nice day" to me (in his shitty tone), I should have turned around & smiled real nice and said "Thanks, you too...". I mean really, maybe I deserved to be jabbed real hard with the needle, maybe I was being a bitch when I was impatiently tapping my foot and jiggling my keychains waiting for someone there to help me. Maybe he treated me, the way he thought that I treated him and the rest of the employees there when I first walked in.

So I decided that the next time someone is shitty with me, I'm going to try my hardest not to be shitty back. I'm just going to smile and be nice to them, no matter what the circumstance is. Life is too short to waste time being pissed off at people. Maybe I should have listened some more to my mother when she used to tell me when I was a child "turn the other cheek..."