So a definite plus was that Wall Street Physicians was open on December 31, very important since I…read morehad to get my physical before the end of the year. So I was totally psyched about that. Appointment was at 9 in the morning, between the paper work and just the general speed of the office, I didn't see anyone until 10am. It might have been because it was New Years eve, or just they are generally slow in the office. I would definitely get there early in case they are slow all the time.
Saw the nurse/ technician first, she took my temperature, and your normal stuff. Then came to taking my blood. For those who get queasy, you might not want to read further. So I give blood often, and the thick needles for blood donation don't bother me cause I have this large vein. The nurse decides she doesn't want to bruise me (apparently that outer vein bruises easily, weird it doesn't happen with the large blood donation needle), so she decides she wants something further down. Take a minute or two to find the vein, all the while, my big outer vein is ready to pop since she's put the rubber on the upper arm to get the blood going.
She then sticks the needle in, and lo and behold, she misses! And pulls out the needle, and sticks it in again. Whew. So then she take the two vials worth of blood, and as she's taking out the second vial, she pull the entire needle off my arm, and now there's some blood squirting everywhere. She was apologetic and everything, but wow, if I had been even a bit squeamish, I would've hiked it out of there.
So enough about that. I met witht the physician next, Geri Hanson, she's the RPA, not the MD. She was attentive, we went over any symptoms I had, looked over my EKG (BTW, I've never gotten one for a normal physical, so that was interesting), and said she's follow up with the blood tests.
Two days later, blood tests were emailed to me (I had the option of mail, email, fax), and all was well. In general, very happy with the thoroughness. I'm sure the blood drawing was a one off thing, but because of it, could not give it a 5 star. Definitely will be back for my annual again, but hope the nurse has learned how to draw blood.