Good vs. Bad Bacteria

Bacteria

It is an epic war that has claimed many. No one can remember how or why the fighting began. All they know now is war, a war like no other. A war between light and dark, right and wrong, good bacteria and bad bacteria… at least that is what the doctor told me.

He might have used the much more medical term ‘stomach bacteria’ to describe my recent tummy troubles but I knew what he really meant. I imagined little bacteria in little World War I planes dog fighting over the stomach acid lakes while below bacteria soldiers clashed on half digested hamburger hill, locked in deadly combat. My mind started to provide the sound affects and voices for all the tiny bacteria like an eight year old playing with his toys while the doctor continued to go into more detail.

“Everything you have described would seem to indicate stomach bacteria.”

Boom!… “Argg!”… Pew, pew… “Noooo! My cytoplasm!” clang, clang, Bang!

“I can already prescribe you some medication.”

Pew, pew, Kaboom!… “Tell my wife and 7 million bacteria children I love them.” Bang, Bang. “Agghhhhh!”

“You’ll need to take one a day for two weeks.”

Pew, pew… “Who’s in charge?!”… Pew, pew… “I thought you were in charge!”… Kaboom! “Aaaggghhh!”

“But I want to send you for a blood test…”

Pew, pew…
Hu?… Wait! What? Blood test? Needles! No! No! No!

I really don’t like needles.

“Just to confirm what kind of bacteria we are dealing with. In case we need to adjust the medication.”

What kind? Could he not see that it was clearly the work of the evil 3rd infantry bacterial unit led by the infamous General Grober van Bakterien? There was no time for blood tests. Good bacteria were dying. I was starting to question if this so called doctor had ever been to medical college.

I thought about telling him this for a moment but decided to keep my over active imagination to myself. Especially since he seemed like a man who had easy access to other needles that could be used to sedate ‘the crazy patient’.

It was time to bite the medical bullet. I might not like needles but it had to be done… for the troops. After all, how bad could it be?

The blood test (or as it shall know be known; “The Quest for a Vein”) took several attempts. Neither arm was spared a few pokes.

On the first attempt my right arm only produced a few drops of blood which apparently was not enough despite my belief that any small amount of blood taken from my body is more than enough.

On the second attempt my left arm produced even less blood. As the lady with the needle continued to poke around inside on her search I started to wonder if I actually had any veins.

On the third attempt I started to question if I even had a pulse.

And on the fourth attempt I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief when she finally found the elusive vein and the blood started to flow, confirming that I was actually still alive and did not need to apply for zombie citizenship.

I was sent on my way without so much as a lollypop for being a brave boy. However, I did not leave without a souvenir. I was left with two huge bruises on the inside of both my elbows (where the blood was taken) which makes me look like a victim of domestic violence. This is incredibly unfair to let people think since my girlfriend was comforting me the whole time by letting me use her hand as a squeeze toy in what I can only describe as a death grip. That is why I have been telling everyone I walked into a door.

To be continued in: Mix Up At The Chemist

Stuart

Stuart is an accident prone Englishman who has been living in the Netherlands since 2001. Even his move to the country was an unintentional accident, the result of replying to a cryptic job advertisement he found one day in a local British magazine. Since then he has learned to love the Dutch (so much so that he married one of them) and now calls the country home. He started the blog Invading Holland in 2006 as a place to share his strange stories of language misunderstandings, cultural confusions and his own accident prone nature.

13 Responses

  1. kiks says:

    Poor, poor Stu. The bruise is indeed impressive. Maybe we can set you up with that lollipop after all.

  2. Alison says:

    I’m cringing just reading about it! Thank goodness you can wear sleeves to hide the bruises. Would hate to think your sainted girlfriend would receive dirty looks from strangers! (A friend of mine had some sort of surgery on her head that resulted in two black eyes. Her poor husband was regularly given the stink-eye by people in shops who thought he’d beat her up.)

  3. Invader Stu says:

    kiks – Yay! You make Stuart happy.

    Alison – She might end up hitting me with all the jokes I have been making about it :p

  4. Melissa P says:

    You have veins like me! I hate going for blood work because they have to jab me 5 or 6 times before they get a bleeder. My favourite is when they start searching for the vein with the needle in your arm… aaaaaaah yes. When I had Isabella, I was jabbed more times then I could count.

    Get better soon!! :)

  5. Invader Stu says:

    Thanks Melissa. I’m slowly on the mend. They did the poking around inside thing with the needle on me too and I didn’t like it either.

  6. Dave Hampton says:

    Ouch, sorry that the thrill of being ill is compounded by having difficult blood vessels. I’d like to think that it may be a result of too much exercise: low blood pressure keeping the vasculature soft and muscles hiding the veins and arteries? ‘Hope you get well soon!

  7. Invader Stu says:

    Dave – I like how you put a positive spin on the veins thing :)

  8. Gez says:

    Stu, I know what you feel like; I’ve actually bent girlfriends rings from using their hands as squeeze toys when I’ve been at the dentist. I’ve also had to visit one former girlfriend (herself an NHS worker at the time, so chatted with the nurses regularly) in hospital, where she pointed out the huge veins on the back of my hands to the staff, who all seemed to want to practice venthlon insertion on me! Not that they got that chance though…

  9. Invader_Stu says:

    Gez – Yikes. I don’t blame you. I think I would have run out of the hospital screaming before they had a chance to finish asking.

  10. Wendi says:

    Ay-yi-yi. How harrowing.
    And I think “The Quest for the Vein” is Michael Bey’s new blockbuster starring Will Smith as The Needle.

  11. Invader Stu says:

    Wendi – Do you know who is going to play me?

  12. VallyP says:

    Ouch! It all sounds perfectly horrible. The Quest for the Vein was quite the worst part. I feel quite sick now!

  13. Invader Stu says:

    VallyP – Sorry. Didn’t mean to make you feel sick. You’ll be happy to know the bruises are gone.