A Visit to the Doctor's Office

Thursday we went to the Dr's. for our checkups, shots, and to get our blood drawn.

Everyone was full of smiles, even though it was pretty early in the morning.

We couldn't wait for Dr. Robinson to get there.

But somewhere deep inside of us we were all a little afraid of the needles to come.

It was really fun to see Dr. Robinson again :) He's been our pediatrician since... ever since I can remember. He did our checkups and we are all healthy! Yeah! :D

Then came the drawing of the blood. *Dum, dum, dum, dummmmm* ;)

I have terrible veins when it comes to drawing blood from them. They like to burrow down deeper in my skin so that they can't be found. Last time I had my blood drawn... Oh my, it was quite the adventure.

There we were in Kansas, at some doctor's office that gave missionaries a discount on their shots and getting their blood drawn. We were needing our blood drawn so that they could tell what type of blood we had. The nurse called me into the room to draw my blood. She tied the elastic around my arm and thought she saw a vein. *Poke* In went the needle. "Whoops", she said. Oh man, that is really not something you want to hear when someone is inside of you with a needle. Well, the 'whoops' was because my vein had rolled and the nurse couldn't stick it. So, she just kept digging around inside of my arm with the needle searching for my vein. Talk about pain! Finally she realized she could not get my vein. Oh! what a huge sigh of relief it was when that needle came sliding out of my arm. But alas, she still did not have the blood she needed. So, where would she get the blood from? She couldn't take it from my other arm because another Dr. had just taken blood from there the day before, so the nurse found a vein in my hand. My hand! *Poke* Again, in went the needle and again she didn't hit the vein. A needle scrounging around inside of my hand searching for a vein hurt even worse than in my arm. But, when I thought it would never end, *poke* she hit the vein! I was so thankful! I was waiting for the Alleluia Chorus to start blaring from out of no where. It didn't.... but I sure shouted it out in my mind. And yes, blood did come out of my vein, and although it was barely a trickle she got what she needed in due time :) And that was the end.

This Thursday was the first time I'd gotten my blood drawn since that experience. I won't lie, I was a bit skeptical... at first. The nurse tied the elastic around my right arm and.... no vein popped up. But instead of sticking a needle in and trying to find a vein while inside of my arm she untied the elastic and tied it to my left arm to try and find a vein in that arm! I was so thankful!! Right then I knew that this nurse wasn't gunna poke me unless she knew she had a vein. *phew!* Well, she went back and forth from left arm to right arm trying to get a vein to show. But my veins wouldn't let themselves be found. So she tried my hands she tied the elastic around each hand at least four times each but still, no veins. She said if I was 90 she could draw blood out of my feet. Ouch! After not finding any veins she called over another nurse to try. This nurse tied the elastic around my arms several times and then went to my hands. She finally found a little vein in my left hand but decided to try once more on my left arm before poking into my hand. As soon as she tied the elastic around my arm a vein showed up! Yeah!! Thank you God!! :D The other nurse came back and stuck the needle in and drew all the blood she needed. She poked perfectly! No digging, no "Whoops!" It was wonderful! She kept saying she was sorry for how long it took and I was like, "THANK YOU!!!" Haha, anyways, all went well! :D

Thank you Dr. Robinson and the nurses! It was a great visit! :D