Relatively painless BLOOD TEST @ MDC

This week started with a nagging feeling that my resident registration card was going to expire soon. I brought it in for the departmental secretary to check the dates (I can't read it). Oops. It seemed it had expired a week ago. I gave it (along with a photo) to the gentleman who takes care of these things for foreign staff. He came back a few hours later to let me know that it seemed that the Asaish (special police) had lost my file and required me to have another blood test. And me being so squeamish of needles.

Luckily, the venue for blood tests has changed. My first year at the university, so many staff complained that they didn't want to be poked and prodded with needles in a filthy environment by hands wearing surgical gloves that had been on when the wearer emptied the trash, a nurse came to the university and took all of our blood in a classroom! This time (yesterday), I was driven to the Medya Diagnostic Center next to New City shopping center. By local medical establishment standards, this place was really clean. I was beginning to relax. Then a man came to get me for my test. He was wearing surgical gloves and signing some papers. The green ink had gotten all over the palm of his gloved hand. Then he led me to the blood-drawing room. He cleared a small table of trash and lifted the lid of the can with his gloved hand. Hmmm.... and just when I had started to relax. Anyway, then a young woman comes in, takes off her gloves, puts on a fresh pair and starts prodding my arm for veins. I breathe a sigh of relief. Even better yet, the first prick of the needle and the sliding of it into the vein didn't really hurt at all. But that didn't stop me from being tense and nervous to the degree that I was faint by the time she told me it was over. I had to ask for a glass of water until the wave of dizziness passed, my hearing came back and vision returned to normal. (Yes, I know this is melodramatic, but I was really nervous). It was only about a minute or two, but it felt like an eternity.

Anyway, I was feeling quite good about this new diagnostic center... until I recounted this tale to a colleague last night only to be told that she had gone there for some tests and was misdiagnosed. Sigh. Why burst my bubble?