I didn't get swabbed and now my arm's going to fall off

I've come to realize that the older I get, the more paranoid I am about germs. Not basic stuff. I really don't believe we need to have antibacterial everything (regular soap works for me, yo), so it's not that kind of germ that freaks me out.

Examples of what I mean:

I have my own glass and coffee mug (and spoon) at work, and I hand wash all of them every day. Sometimes more than once. The thought of them being stuck in the dishwasher with everyone else's filthy stuff makes me unsettled.

No, sorry, if you extend your handful of M&Ms to share, I will not partake. I won't even partake of M&Ms in a bowl on your desk. Goodness knows how many grubby hands have already fished around in there. I don't do well at potlucks.

I use a paper towel when I open and close public bathroom doors.



You get the idea. Nothing totally Howard Hughes or anything, but other people are SO gross sometimes.

This leads me to the actual point of this post. Last night, I donated blood. I have had issues with the phlebotomists at the central Seattle location before. This woman, though...she didn't swab me! She was in such a hurry, I think, because someone she knew was outside in the waiting room. She wanted to stick me and go rush to chitter chat with him, and so she didn't prep me at all. I didn't even realize it until after she had already left, just had a "whoa, that was fast" feeling.

Now, I know that everything's sterile there. I'm not seriously concerned that the needle would cause me any sort of problem. Not really. Except that it kept me awake last night. I kept thinking about how she skipped that rather crucial step, and then my arm started to itch and the idea gnawed away at the back of my mind.

Mostly I think I'm just irritated that she was so intent on getting to someone else that she did a half-arsed job on me.