In other news, there are two itchy bumps on my arms. One has histamine and is almost gone. The other has tree-bits. Harmless little tree bits. It itches almost as much as a MN mosquito bite.
In an ironic moment, at the COLA/POL show in Florida, our booth was next to the Hitachi booth. The Hitachi guy was there hyping Hitachi's lab instrument for doing allergy tests that replaces the kind of test you got done. Instead of having to lie still while somebody puts allergens into your skin, they put you-bits into a tube with allergen-bits and perform the test in vitro, which is much less itchy.
Since the people on the other side of us were our competitors, I chatted with the Hitachi guy a lot (you can tell).
I'm just amused because I'd never heard of anybody actually getting that test before, and now you got it just after I heard about it.
See, that test involves needles, while this one just involved a plastic pokey thing that didn't trigger needle-panic quite as bad. I still did the mild shock thing because the room was full of needle-like stuff, but not as much as if she'd actually had to draw blood out of me. (*Bad* brain! No cookie.) It does sound better than the "we'll jab you with several needles full of *lots* of allergen" that they could also have done.
Did you know the word for drawing blood is "phlebotomy"? I bet you could have lived your whole life without knowing that and not been poorer for the experience.
When I was looking for jobs at MGH I went past several listings for phlebotomists. I've always thought this sounded too much like specialized brain surgery.
Did you know the word for a blood-pressure measuring device is "sphygmomanometer?" Why does my brain remember things like that, and not, say, useful information?
That is totally useful information. Suppose you were being chased by hungry cannibals. You could tell them "You may not eat me until you bring me a sphygmomanometer!" Then you'd have time to escape while they argued over how to spell "sphygmomanometer" in order to look it up on the Internet.
I hear livejournal's clock is a bit wacky at the moment. Still not as bad as my answering machine, which currently thinks it is sometime Monday morning.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-10 10:07 pm (UTC)Since the people on the other side of us were our competitors, I chatted with the Hitachi guy a lot (you can tell).
I'm just amused because I'd never heard of anybody actually getting that test before, and now you got it just after I heard about it.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-10 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-10 11:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-10 11:47 pm (UTC)Did you know the word for drawing blood is "phlebotomy"? I bet you could have lived your whole life without knowing that and not been poorer for the experience.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-11 12:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-11 12:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-11 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-11 02:38 am (UTC)(Yep, just double-checked, it's on page 168.)
no subject
Date: 2006-10-11 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-10 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-10 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-10 11:48 pm (UTC)