If, like me, you are scared of needles, and scared of blood, then this kit will probably be harder for you to do than it should be.

When I was invited to review Forth with Life, I thought, Yes, great idea, I'd love to see an insight into the condition of my health is.

Completely ignoring the fact that I am terrified of needles and rubbish when I see blood. I thought, these are small prick tests, I can handle that... pfft no problem.

Then it arrived, I excitedly opened it up and see the small prick needles, and gulped.  "What the hell am I thinking" I can't do that.  So I shelved the kit, and left it for a few weeks. Wimping out... 

After a couple of weeks, and after countless times of pushing myself I finally got brave enough and got the kit out - hubby was home on a day off, so if I did pass out, at least he was here.

I gave myself a little telling off and then some words of encouragement, and so I decided to just do it. It will be so easy, the vial I had to fill with blood was tiny! what am I worrying about.

After reading the instructions (several times, just to make sure I didn't muck it up), I did the first prick in my thumb. Ah, that was okay, that didn't hurt so bad; I didn't even see the needle and I didn't throw a whitey. The blood started to drip out slowly, too slowly. I was massaging the side of my thumb trying to get the blood to drip out faster... but it was coming out very slowly, and most of the blood rather than dripping out was instead streaking up my thumb rather than dripping out in the vial; my hand started to look like I had been in a blood bath, my hand was covered in blood - I started to, not panic, but feel queasy / lightheaded (the sight of blood). After taking a few deep breathes to steady myself, I cleaned my hand, and took a second prick needle and pricked my middle finger and started again - this time it was a little easier to get the blood drips into the vial, but the blood was still streaking up my fingers and quickly started to look messy again.

I struggled, really struggled, but I was determined to fill the vial. Hubby didn't help much, much to his amusement.  

30-minutes later, after nearly passing out and hubby laughing at me, I had finally filled the vial (did I mention how tiny the vial is). With a big sigh of relief I placed the plaster on my finger, sealed up the vial with the envelope, cleaned my hand and went and had a lie down!

Hubby popped it in the post and we waited.

The results were available within 3 days, which was super impressive, however, not all things could be successfully tested (the biomarkers), probably due to the fact I took so long to drip the blood out.  But, the results it did give, shocked me.  High blood pressure, low Vitamin D - these are things I've never considered to be part of my health that needed my attention, but it is now evident to me that I should pay more attention to these aspects of my health. 

Am I glad I did it? Yes. Would I do Forth with Life again? hmm, I would like to, to see if my health has improved (I've been taking Vitamin D supplements since my results), but honestly, I don't think I am brave enough. Now I know I made such a pigs ear of it, and I will probably make a pigs ear of it again. eekk

You never know... maybe one day I will pluck up the courage to do a Forth with Life test again.