Day One

Hello again. This might not be as short as yesterday, but it isn’t going to be very long.

Today began my phlebotomy internship. Yesterday my nerves were on edge. Last night I dreamed of owning three nuclear warheads and enduring nuclear leaks. I haven’t had dreams like that for a very long time.

This morning I woke up early because Trista was barking. The darn dog barks at noise she thinks she hears. This morning I don’t know what it was but once she barks, she and Scooter both think they need to go out. I needed to use the bathroom anyway so I got up, let them out, went to the downstairs bathroom and then remembered there was no toilet paper in it so I went back upstairs to that bathroom. I did what needed to be done, went back down and let Trista in. Scooter was nowhere to be seen. I walked to one end of the driveway and then the other, calling her the entire time because she can hear even if she can’t see. No Scooter. I figured I should go out looking for her so I did. There was a hanger jammed under the seat of the Jetta so that I couldn’t get it moved up far enough. I finally got that out but it still wouldn’t go up far enough. There was a glove in the way which I finally got out of the way. I drove a short distance each way and saw no Scooter. I came home and she had just been let in. Darn dog.

In my morning activities to that point, I did something that my back did not like. It hurt in the shower, although the hot water felt good. The heated seat in the Jetta driving to Worcester felt nice but when I got out, I didn’t want to move further. Walking around and drawing blood was not a big deal because walking and standing don’t hurt and they have seats for people to sit in that are high enough that the phlebotomist doesn’t have to bend over too far. By the time we were done, I was ready to go home and my back did hurt but not like it did after sitting for 45 minutes. The heated seat felt good on the way home but not good enough. When I got home, I wasn’t sure I was even going to be able to get OUT of the car. I did, although it took a couple of minutes, and again walking and standing wasn’t bad. I took a heavy duty ibuprofen and had some supper and I feel okay now. I might take one with me to take once I get there tomorrow.

My phlebotomists name is Dawn and she reminds me of a cross between a friend, Julie McLeish, and her sister, Kathy Stonehocker. She is nice and knows her stuff which I would imagine is one reason why she can have someone follow her. As part of our internship, we are supposed to complete 100 successful venipunctures (or a combination of them and finger sticks). Today I did one finger stick and eight venipunctures successfully. One finger stick I did alright but the blood wouldn’t drop where I wanted it to so I didn’t count it successful. I attempted three venipunctures that were not successful. One of them was just that I needed to pull the needle out a bit. Most people are quite willing to have an intern draw them but some are not. It is amazing how many people will say that they have to have a ‘butterfly.’ I think that some of them are right but I would expect that they all don’t. One woman came in and saw me and Bridgett (the other intern and wanted to know if we’d done more than one draw. Bridgett said, oh, yes, we’d been there all day drawing people! That isn’t at all what the woman wanted to hear; she wanted someone with experience. She was quite relieved when Bridgett’s phlebotomist, Joseph, told her he’d actually been drawing for a few years. Anyway, it was an interesting day. I am glad it is over and I will be very glad when the three weeks are done.

Now, I am going to go. The bed is calling me. So alluring is the call that I am not even going to make the hot chocolate that I would really like to have before retiring.

Good night!