Yes, it's true. I'm a wimp. 30 years old and I still get lightheaded when they draw blood from me.

I had to do it. I've been avoiding it for months and it was finally time. Not for any disease thing or anything like that. For my job. And for school.

See, working for a health care company (even in a non-patient care capacity), I have to have proof of two measles-mumps-rubella vaccinations, or get a blood test that proves immunity. I've been trying to track down my records for months so I could avoid getting the blood test. It became apparent that I wouldn't find the stuff and still I dragged my feet.

Then I tried to register for graduate school. Apparently, there's a tremendous risk of me getting or spreading the measles through the Internet, since all I'm taking at this point is Web-based classes. I tried cleverly to get them to send my shot records from my undergraduate school to the University of Arizona.

Unfortunately, between then and now, the state universities have changed their policy. They, too, require proof of two immunizations. Until they have this proof of immunity, I can't register.

Desperate, I went and did it.

Hearing the blood slosh in the little tube did not help my squeamishness. Blood-draw all over, well-intentioned nurse asks if I'm sure I'm all right. I say "Oh, yeah, thanks," as the world turns white and my head gets lighter and lighter. I managed feebly to make it outside and sit down without passing out, but only barely.

I'm 30. What happens when I get older and my health starts to fail and I need blood tests more frequently than once every 7 or 8 years? I shudder to think.