Leather Vein

Yesterday I went in for my pre-chemo blood test (next chemo is tomorrow, whoo! :S )
I joined the queue of happy (not really) prospective blood lettees, and after a few minutes wait, was invited into the blood letting room, where I sat in the chair that looks like it used to be used for prisoner lethal injection executions.
It was the same blood-letter (I think they prefer the title phlebologist) that I had at the end of my last cycle. He was very polite and quite smiley (makes a change. The smiley bit that is). He found a vein on my left arm and stuck in his needle. Surprisingly it didn't particularly hurt (good work!), but then no blood came out. He smiled apologetically and said sorry several times as he repeatedly partially withdrew the needle and then prodded it back in again. Again, strangely, despite his constant string of apologys, it wasn't painful. He said that this must be a popular vein and that there was scar tissue and the chemo probably hasn't helped matters. Finally, he made the killing thrust and with a triumphant grin was able to extract enough blood from the leather vein to fill his little tubes. Note to self, steer future blood letters, sorry phlebologists, away from the leather vein!