Temptations & Ambitions

"Uncle, I want take blood now arh.. Okay?"

"Aiya, they just take blood from me just now. Now want to take again ah? Just now take until my hand very pain leh, the 3 young guys just now.."

"What time they take blood ah, uncle? Doctor just now say want take blood."

"Just now lor.. around 4pm la. Just now they take blood not enough arh? Want to do what more test?"

"Aiya, uncle, don't worry la, take a little blood only. See? This small test tube only. Now 7.30pm ady, plus this is different test."

With this, it is the usual convincing of the patients. To let us, the medical students, to do some venupuncture. It was barely 5 minutes that I had entered the Surgery Ward for night on-call, when the house officer on-call offered us the opportunity to do venupuncture. Ching Yeen was the one doing first initially on the patient with some thyroid problems. Mine? It was done on an elderly man who had some bowel disorders. Plus, the only time I had managed to do a proper complete venupuncture was on my dad.

I had never succeeded otherwise.

"Ok lar, I let you take lah, don't make it so painful ah.."

"Sure, uncle! It will just hurt a little."

And I wasn't really sure how much it'll hurt. Maybe a lot. But I can't tell that to the patient. Fear creates more pain. And that was the last thing I had wanted to do.

We distracted him with some friendly conversations. Ching Yeen and Siaw Khing were there too. At least, not let him feel too much on the pain.

"Wah, uncle!! Dato Chua Jui Meng sent you flowers wor! You know him very well arh?" Ching Yeen commented on what we saw on the the table, the bouquet of flowers.

"Aiya, just a close friend of mine. Do you guys know him? He was the ex-Minister of Health. Probably you wouldn't know him since you guys were so young back then. Anyway, he got 'kicked out' because he tried to 'wrestle power' from his boss."

"Wah, so close ah? You must be happy then.. big shot wor.." I added

"Eh, do you guys know him? Don't think you guys know him lar.."

"Aiya, Dato Chua Jui Meng wor..I know him very well. Just that he doesn't know me only ma.." And I was trying to cheer up the atmosphere.

With the conversation going on, I managed to anchor his obvious vein on his left arm with my left hand. The syringe needle was inserted right away. There was initial resistance, but I had to make it quick. My gloves were a bit slippery back then. It went straight into the vein, and the 'flash' was seen. Blood was filling the syringe as I pulled the plunger. A sense of relief flushed out the adrenaline in my body as I pulled out the tourniquet and remove the needle.

At last, mission accomplished. My first successful venupuncture on a patient.

I bet the patient wouldn't want to know that, so I kept that to myself.

"Uncle, so did it hurt arh? Not so much right?" Siaw Khing asked the patient.

"It doesn't hurt at all leh. Maybe it's because he's (referring to me) very experienced. The 3 guys who came this evening weren't good at all. You must be very good. Really different from before, my hands still aching from the previous blood-taking."

I nodded. I smiled. A moment later, I excused myself from him and tend to his blood sample. I was still in a daze by the experience. It wasn't skill nor experience that I had anyway.

It was just sheer luck.

And there goes another signature on my logbook.