Bloodsuckers

Last week was a bad week for me – I lost a lot of blood.  I managed to get through two thirds of the summer bite-free, and then I had to go and spoil it by forgetting the bug spray at an outdoor evening work function.  I went straight from work, so I was wearing jeans and a shirt with sleeves to my elbows, but that wasn’t enough protection. Oh no – I ended up with FIVE mosquito bites.  Where?  On my feet!  And one on my pinky finger.  I hate mosquitoes.  As if mosquito bites weren’t bad enough, I had to have blood drawn the very next day.  Not for one test, no.  I was having a whole bunch of tests redone, so I went to the place (The lab? It’s not really a lab.  They send the blood off to a lab.  And it’s not a doctor’s office.  Whatever.  The place.), and the guy (the phlebotomist – that’s a great job title) looked at the order with the LONG list of tests (they were testing for 13 things, I think) and pulled seven tubes out of the rack.  SEVEN tubes.  That’s SEVEN VIALS of my blood he had to get out of my arm.  And I was fasting!  AND I had to go to work when he was done.  Inhuman, that’s what this was.  Inhumane, maybe.  Because I’m human.  Not an alien, not a robot.  Hm.  Maybe that’s what they were testing for.  Maybe I’m NOT human.  Mom, Dad, is that ice storm birth story just a cover for how you REALLY got me?  I’ll have to check those results carefully.