Blood Tests

Can't you just ask them to take it from your hand, I've had it taken from both my hand and arm. Usually I just ask them to take blood from my left arm and they do it.

I am not sure I follow all this.
It sounds very surreal.

I can't stand blood tests. Last time I had a blood test, it was while being strapped down and restrained by government employees as an expat when it was a mandatory requirement to be tested for HIV and TB (both are illegal to have, and are tested regularly on all residents).

But it's not the needle thing, or the taking blood thing that really gets me, it's the "intimacy" of my inner arm. It's hard to explain, but it's so "inner" and sensitive and just.... not meant to have holes stuck in it!

I'm fine with being jabbed in the upper arm for vaccinations and stuff, don't mind if someone were to put an IV line in on the back of my hand, it's just the bit inside my elbow just seems so..... well. Yeah, can't explain it. I can't stand it, and as soon as I feel the needle POP through, I throw up, pass out, or both.

I'm fine with blood and injuries, I've seen and treated some pretty messed up stuff in emergencies, it's just that inner-arm-puncture that just screws me up.

Luckily back home here in the UK, you can't be forced into medical tests if you don't want to be, but there have been a few times where I've refused blood tests when they could have led to serious diagnoses. Now, I'm at a point where I've been putting off a potentially "life-threatening" yes-or-no diagnosis for nearly 6 months because it requires a blood test.

In hospital, they often put an IV line in the back of your hand, and take blood samples from there.

At the surgery, why can't they take their blood sample from the back of my hand? Why do they insist of taking it from the inside of my arm? I mean, sure, it might take a bit longer because the blood flow might not be as strong, but surely it's not impossible?