As part of Jen’s training to do blood sugar readings and whatnot, she needed to learn the quantity of blood needed to satisfy the meter. It was one of the things she was being tested on today. The number? 0.6 micro liters.
We were practicing last night. I asked her how much blood I needed. She dutifully told me 0.6 micro liters.
Now let me ask you something. How much blood is that? The best I could come up with was one three-millionths of a two liter bottle of Pepsi. It’s an utterly meaningless number. She said it was akin to the head of a needle. “So like, the size of a deer tick?” Nope, she didn’t like that. “So then the size of a dot you make with a pen?” Nope, more than that. “Dot from a sharpee?” Sure, that much. “What the hell kind of needles are you using?” She’s sowing whale hides to teepees or something.
Meanwhile they asked her today, she said 0.6 micro liters, they smiled and nodded and gave her a great grade. As long as we decide before hand that we’ll communicate in esoteric terms with no real world meaning, I guess it’s easy enough to pass the assessments.
Words 
Leave a Reply