Waiting for tomorrow
2005-04-17...7:23 p.m.

After two long days at the hospital (actually, it was only a total of 11 hours, but when you're used to staying at home...whew!) I have a combined total of 16 draws. I can't believe I still need 84! Tomorrow should go a little better, though, since they do outpatient labs during the week.

Carmen has been logging her draws differently from mine. She's been marking EVERY attempt, and marking whether or not it was a "hit" or "miss." The sad part is that she only had 7 draws on her sign sheet. If I were writing it down like that, I would already have 20 draws! I have only been logging my successful draws, though.

Today was slow for me - I only got 4 draws, even though we were running all over the ER. A lot of them I didn't get to do because the patients were getting IVs, and they were getting the draws off of the IV catheter before they started the fluids. I had 2 misses today, but I didn't feel horrible for it - the phleb I was with had a hard time with the same patients. BUT...

I did get to sit in while a student doctor put in an arterial line. It was pretty cool - she had to put a line into an artery near the clavicle using a syringe, a wire, some plastic tubing, and several other implements I couldn't quite see. WAY cool, though. AND...

There's lots of gossip around the hospital. Fun to listen to. It'll be interesting once my face becomes familiar and I get to hear all the B.S. about who's doing whom.

Ah, and the "OMG did I really dream that?" dream:

I must be feeling VERY deprived, because last night I dreamt that I slept with Christine (sorry, my dear, not trying to freak you out!). Talk about waking up feeling guilty!

the last trail...the next path