Cycles of Persecution

An encounter during a routine bloodletting forced me to confront a suddenly darker world

Fergus Tuohy
Human Parts
Published in
10 min readApr 19, 2024

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A medical professional putting a needle in a patient’s arm
Photo by Nguyễn Hiệp on Unsplash

I was in a cheerful mood going in for my phlebotomy that afternoon, that is until the nurse started with her prying questions.

It was my first time in this clinic, and it was just the two of us in a windowless room at back of the hospital’s infusion…

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Fergus Tuohy
Human Parts

Writer, retired financial planner, erstwhile rascal, whitewater kayaker, Columbia J-School alum “We’re all born naked and the rest is drag.”-RuPaul Charles