Art & Photography by Courtney Krishnamurthy
Art & Photography by Courtney Krishnamurthy

Mafia elves beat me at night

I had blood drawn last Thursday. At the time, I thought the doctor did a terrific job — it took a split second, he didn’t beat on my veins like some of the nurses do, it was over in a flash.

Thursday my arm hurt; Friday my arm hurt; Saturday my arm hurt. I thought I was just being a big baby about it, but it really did hurt — I couldn’t straighten my arm out.

Saturday night I take off my shirt and look at my arm, and holy shit — it looked about like the picture above (taken today) only all black and blue shades, no greens and yellows like I have now. I was not being a baby! (Thursday and Friday my arm looked fine, lily white as always.)

Keep in mind this was just from a simple blood draw where nothing went wrong. There were no “I can’t find your veins”, no multiple attempts, just 1, 2, 3, done. But, for some reason, it looks like tiny mafia elves went to town on my arm. I can imagine them: “Oh, you don’t want to pay up, huh?” Thwack! with a tiny baseball bat to my arm. “You better have my money by Monday, or there’ll be more where this came from!” as his cronies kick and beat me while I lay in the fetal position crying.

This shit hurts still.

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