Questions

Firstly, thank you all for your kind comments. I truly was not expecting them. Between all the comments and the emails I received, I was blown away. But this is that little family I was talking about when I mentioned the importance of sharing coming out stories. Though we may seem alone, we aren't. So if there are anymore questions regarding that topic or if you just want to share your own thoughts, I will gladly listen and try to answer. Now that I've gotten it out there, I'm not as scared to get into the details if need be. But again, thank you for your support.

On to several questions:

The Question: What state do I live in that would have a school near a beach?

The Answer:

I have lived most of my life in various parts of Florida. But I went to high school in Daytona Beach. Loved the area. Miss the area. Miss the events, the beach, even the birds... (here is a picture of the school to give you an idea)

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The Question: How did I get into the medical field?

The Answer:

It found me. No, um... my father is a laboratory technologist and when I graduated from high school, I needed a job. We had just moved to this lovely... small... country town and there wasn't much more than doctor's offices, car dealerships, and Walmart. So, I got a job working as a phlebotomist, drawing people's blood. I should probably address a common misconception. I am not a lab tech. My dad is and I just work in the lab, forming a close relationship with the lab techs that I work with. I'm currently the phlebotomy supervisor while I figure out if/when/why I will go back to school.

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The Question: What color eyes does your sister have?

The Answer:

LOL. Yeah, I knew it was a little hard to see in that picture. Her eyes are usually brown, but they are known for turning a bit green with those golden bursts. So they are usually brown but better classified as brown/green hazel. Which in itself is interesting seeing as I have blue eyes, while my father's are plain brown and my mother's are a blue/brown hazel.

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Keep the questions coming. I still have some that were emailed to me that I will answer, but next... I think I might do some pictures from a recent vacation since you all want pictures as well. I might throw a poem in there as well. Sotries too... that's a lot of stuff... Keep coming back and I will get to it all.

I'm Leaving

So in five hours, I am getting off of work and going on a little mini vacation. All of three days worth. Granted ten hours of those three days will be spent in a car... by myself... and my radio...

But I wont have to go to work, so that's always a plus! I don't know how much I will be able to post on here, but I've already written ahead with the fics so those will be updated on schedule. I'll see if maybe I can take some pictures and share with you all, but it's a very last minute mini vacation just because I had an employee quit and this maybe the last chance I have to get a day off of work for a very, very long time.

The hidden meaning: I'm running away from my work related responsibilities. Hope you all have a good week.

The Things I Find on My Phone

My phone beeped at me today that the memory was getting full so I decided to delete some of the pictures I had on it and I found a crap load of ones that I don't even remember taking but I thought a few of them were pretty cute.

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This, I do remember, was taken right before Halloween. Our 'chocolate' lab defied the odds and consumed an entire bag of M&Ms (wrappers and all) without getting sick or dieing, seeing as dog's aren't suppose to eat chocolate.

I don't know if it's just me or not, but when I saw this sign... my mind went to the gutter.



This is the only place in the laboratory that I work at where her cell phone can get reception. I don't know what provider she has, but I'm glad it's not mine.

And yes. This is my father on a carousel.

Work Humor

Got a long one for you today.

Okay. Now, I know there are a few people from the medical world that follow this blog, and I'm sure you have some of your own stories to add to this. And if any of you are nurses, I mean no disrespect. But at the hospital I work at, we have some... challenged nurses. But first, for those of you who don't know how the hospital setting functions behind the scenes, let me explain a few things.

I work in the laboratory. We draw and run blood and other specimen samples. If we get a result that is outside of the normal 'accepted' range and is considered a 'critical' level, we must call the patient's nurse and inform him or her so that they can take the appropriate actions. Here are a few conversations that I have personally over heard.

Lab Tech: Yes, I have a critical value for a B.U.N. on patient 'John Doe' (making that up for HIPPA violations ;) )
Nurse: Okay. And how do you spell that?
Lab Tech: ...spell what?
Nurse: B.U.N. ?
Lab Tech: B... U... N...
Nurse: Okay. And what's the value?

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Let me explain the Blood Bank system before I tell you this next conversation (or actually 2). When giving blood to a patient it is very, very important that they receive the correct blood type. They can die if they don't. Because this is so important, there is additional identification that needs to be done when drawing blood samples from the patient to determine their blood type.

We have a form on which the person (in this case the nurse) is drawing their blood. They must identify the patient by their wrist band, require a signature verifying it is the correct patient as well as a brief medical history from said patient. After that, a second wrist band is placed on the patient with the patient's name and a unique number that is also placed on the blood sample drawn and the information card. This gives a third and fourth way to identify the patient.

I know it can be confusing. So when a nurse is having to draw this specific test, I try to help them out. I highlight the places on the information card they need to fill out and place a note with it and the second wrist band that says "Please return the filled out information card with the blood sample after you have arm banded the patient". Then I received the following phone call:

Me: Lab This is Brandi.
Nurse: Yes. I have this blood bank I have to draw. I'm about to go draw the specimen and I've already filled out the card. I just have to get the signature, but I have a question.
Me: (Thinking it is the normal 'what if they received blood four months ago' or something like that) Okay. What's your question?
Nurse: What do I do with this armband?
Me: ...You mean the one with the patient's name on it and the note that says to bring the blood down to us after you've armbanded the patient?
Nurse: Yeah. That one.
Me: ...you put it on the patient.
Nurse: That's what I thought.

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Better yet was when I received a phone call from the nursing supervisor or the 'head nurse'.

Me: Lab. This is Brandi.
Nursing Sup: Brandi. Can you bring me a new wrist band for that blood bank specimen you just dropped off.
Me: (thinking I did something wrong) I can. Is there something wrong with that one?
Nursing Sup.: (Taking a deep breath) Not exactly. I just had a nurse who thought she was suppose to put it on herself.

I have a million of these. This is getting a little too long but maybe I'll post some more another day.

My Job

I love having a job where people can threaten to shoot you with a shotgun and there's nothing you can do about it but say 'Okay, but I still have to draw your blood'.

Bless the medical field and all the crazies you run across.