Test Sanguine

Sarcasm Girl is afraid of needles. That she adores House, despite the puncturing and injection technologies, is a testimony to her love for Hugh Laurie (a love I entirely understand). Her phobia is probably rooted in her own anxious nature, but also in a couple of incidents--having cut her chin open as a three-year-old and required stitches, having been given a shot by a nurse at age 10 (after forty-five minutes of wheedling had failed to prepare her). Even with numbing cream so it doesn't hurt too much, her anxiety about shots is almost overwhelming. So you can imagine her horror when the doctor said she wanted to run some tests to rule out mono and such. The kid has had a low-grade persistent ick off and on since Christmas, and no one is happy about it. Yesterday SG was feeling crappy; instead of going to school with the ick, she went for the blood draw.

Preparation for this entailed valium and Emla cream, M&Ms and a book, patience on the part of the phlebotomist (SG loves that word. She kept repeating it with nervous glee all the way into the lab), and me hugging her head so that she couldn't look. Not that she wanted to look; she just couldn't not. Very quickly it was done, all except for the complaints for 24 hours afterward about how her arm hurt.

ETA: Got the results. She's healthy as a horse across the board. Which doesn't explain her ongoing ick--except that it may be her brain talking to her body without the intercession of her mind. Le sigh of relief, and Le sigh generally.

Argh

Across from our house is a small greensward, the siding to an off-ramp from San Jose Avenue. It's our favored place to take Emily for a quick squeeze (as opposed to an epic drag, the hour+ trip to the dog park). Unfortunately, this evening a homeless guy has taken up residence right across from the house, just within sight. And it's driving Emily crazy. She stands in the window, barking unrelentingly. I don't want to give this poor guy more grief than he already has, but I gotta say that hearing the dog bark for an hour straight is pushing all my NIMBY buttons.