Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Haunted

Last Thursday when I went for my blood work, there was a lady already sitting in the waiting area when I arrived.  She was a larger lady who had a young boy (maybe three years old) laying across her lap.  When I moved into the waiting area for the blood clinic she and her son were already there, and when I was called back to the chair for the actual blood test, she was sitting in the chair across from me with her son standing next to her.  As I waited for someone to begin my test, I tried not to stare while this lady was having her test performed.  Suddenly I heard a gasp and a bit of a moan.  Whatever the technician did hurt her.  A lot.  The next several minutes were a panicked flurry of technicians checking in on her, applying ice packs, and ensuring she was able to move her fingers.  She tried so hard to be brave for her little boy, but it was obvious she was in a significant amount of pain.  I could see the tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes.  Eventually they decided to try again in her other arm.  When the little boy realized that they were going to hurt his mommy again he became very upset.  He cried and clung to her.  The technicians tried offering him stickers and popsicles, but he didn't want any of it.  Now his mom had to deal with the pain in her left arm, hold her upset little guy on her lap, and have blood taken from her right arm.  Almost a week later I'm still haunted by this scene.  The love between the mother and her son was so obvious, but I feel so sad that both of them had to go through that experience.  Hopefully it wasn't one of those incidents that he will remember for the rest of his life. 

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