2581 More blood, well, actually, less

Friday, September 11, 2009

David Gerrold, “The Martian Child“: It's almost always dangerous
to be right too soon.

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Last night I went to dinner and bar trivia in Warwick. It was the paper trivia, not NTN. You play in teams, have a lot of time to think about the answer, and bet points on your confidence. It was awfully slow, but still fun. Our group had two tables of five people each. One team came in first, and the other came in last. I won't tell you which I was on.

This morning I drank over a quart of water between 8 and 9 am, and then went to the doctor's office for a blood draw. Today's appointment was originally for blood glucose, but when they put me on the thyroid supplement and said the thyroid (TSH) had to be checked in about six weeks, we just added the TSH to the sugar appointment.

I am so glad I asked when I sat down in the torture chair, "Glucose and thyroid, right?" The gal said no, just thyroid. She checked the book and confirmed just thyroid. I freaked slightly, insisted it was both. A nurse practitioner heard me explaining about the two appointments scheduled together, came in, and looked beyond the top page in the book. "Yeah, both. See, two separate orders."

I got stuck only once, but again it was pretty bad. She needed two tubes, but I shut down before she even filled the first one. She decided that rather than stick me again, she'd transfer some blood from the one tube into another. I asked why it's so hard, are my veins too deep, or pressure too low, or what? She said I just have tiny veins.

I tried an experiment. The tourniquet is supposed to slow down return of the arterial blood pumped to the hand, making it pool up in the vein. Hmmmm. It would seem that when I get stuck, I'm not pumping much blood into the hand. This is actually a good reaction, the body being able to slow down blood to an extremity can prevent bleeding to death if it's cut. So I tried concentrating on sending blood to that hand. "Warm. Warm. Make it warm. This "cut" is ok. There is no danger. Send blood down that arm."

It didn't help then, but 15 minutes after leaving the chair I was in the bank and looked at my right hand. It was pinker and plumper. The skin was less drawn. I held my hands to my cheeks and the right one was definitely much warmer.

Next time, I'll have to try warming my hands in the ladies' room sink and concentrating on flow to the hands BEFORE I go in.

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Tonight I'm going to the movies in Albany. We'll see "9". The organizer keeps changing things. Show time is 8 pm. Originally we were supposed to meet at the tables next to the ticket counter at 7:30. The theater is on the second floor of a large mall. A few days ago he changed to meet at the escalator (top or bottom?) at 7:15. Now he says to meet at the elevator (elevator? there's an elevator?) at 7. For an 8 pm show? I know where the escalator is, but elevator? Obviously there must be one, but where? And which floor will he be at? Ground floor, or the theater floor?

At this point I have reason to believe I'm smarter than the organizer. I'll go a little early. I'll find them. Or I'll just go alone.
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