Phlebology

It was time -- according to my Doctor -- to have another blood test and see how my good and bad cholesterol were getting along. I have never liked this procedure, starting with fasting for 12+ hours. But the Doctor gets cranky if I don't follow through, so I tough it out.

At dinner with our Son and his family, I brought up the subject of having blood drawn. His wife, watches the needle go in and the tube fill up with blood, while her two teenage Daughters whimper and cry. I lean more towards their behaviour than their Mother's.

The practice of bloodletting -- purposefully for health reasons -- has been a human practice for centuries. There are many drawings of where to poke the patient with patented and improvised devices. Here is a 1517 drawing by the Surgeon von Gersdorff.


Ouch!!!

And, of course, there is the medical leech which is experiencing a renewed use, particularly in microsurgery for the re-attachment of things like fingers and ears. These little devils can live for a year after a feeding -- uuuhhh, application.



Bloodletting for years was recommended by Doctors and Surgeons but carried out by Barbers. The old fashioned barber's pole is a reminder of this -- the red stripe represents blood, the white stripe represents bandages and the pole is like the small baton that the patient held on to while the blood was "let."


It seems to me that someplace in the latex-free labs that practice drawing blood, there should be a barber's pole, just to let the hapless sorts like me know that this was an ancient art proudly practiced there, populated with people who understood crying and whimpering.

"Just take this and squeeze," said Kathy, my blood-drawing-technician. "Harder... harder... now, you're going to feel just a little pinch!"

RiiiiiiiGGHHT!!!