TB or not TB?

School employees are required to have periodic TB tests. As a courtesy to the district's employees, my department administers free TB tests on the first few days of the school year. The injection of TB serum is subcutaneous -- a little bubble under the skin --and any swelling or hard lumps that remain when the employee returns 48 hours later for the "reading" are measured.

I am sometimes (hopefully just internally) impatient with people who are fearful. Because I don't share their fears I think to myself: what if they ever have a REAL problem?

One woman yesterday was absolutely undone. She was shaking and crying ... sobbing, really ... and clammy and unable to sit down for the injection. I thought she might pass out. I was sympathetic toward her. When it was over she was smiling and needlessly apologetic.

But then there are the People Who Carry On. I suspect them of being consciously dramatic. They returned to have their arms read yesterday with various little bruises, shaken to the core. Petulant, accusing... insistent that the nurses were incompetent or they wouldn't have bruised... sharing their battle stories with each other as if they'd really been through something.

I know that many of them, if faced with.... let's say... the kind of needle experiences I've had in the last few years, might deal with it with grace. People step up. And I never want to be the sort of person who compares lots. No one wins. But, still... enough.