As simple as tulips

I got my second iron infusion. I have decided these visits are great excuse for treats. So armed with a soy hot chocolate (I actually found a hot chocolate with no sugar, including no fake sugar. Just bitter chocolate and soymilk, which you might think sounds terrible, but I actually love it, and it's hard to find outside of my own house...) So, armed with a soy bitter hot chocolate, and with 10 minutes left before my appointment, I went in search of tulips. I've been craving tulips. I've been watching tulips poke up out of the ground, and I've been growing impatient for their blooms. I found some -- beautiful pinky orange ones with yellow insides. I bought a big bunch, and took them with me into the hematology lab. I figured that way I could think about putting them in water, something I was looking forward to, while going through something I dreaded.

As it turned out, the staff at the lab was insanely nice to me. (TRIGGER ALERT FOR MEDICAL STUFF, BUT I WON'T BE GRAPHIC. See, I might have cried just a little bit the last time I was there. I might have let them understand I am, let's say, maybe a little sensitive. They might have sent in a special nurse to do my IV because "I was a little nervous last time." They might have all reassured me that I was going to do OK. And in fact, I was appreciative for all of this. In the end, it went better this time because a nurse named Rosa gave me some topical Lydocaine and suggested I put it on before they started the IV. In 50 years of my being just a little bit nervous and sensitive, nobody has ever suggested this to me, and I am here to tell you, it made a huge difference. I'm not saying I enjoyed the hour I spent in the lab. But I'm saying it went better, and I'm saying that all the nurses were very very proud of me because I didn't cry. And also, I had some tulips. Which I went home and put in water. And this I did enjoy.