My holiday plans

[lynnbodoni]

Today, all day, I am supposed to pee in a collection cup and transfer it into a jug, which I am supposed to keep cold. Thus, I have an ice chest in my bathroom. Tomorrow I turn in the urine I've collected over 24 hours and then I get to have blood drawn. Oh, joy. And the day after THAT I get to go to the hospital for some testing. Words cannot

Comments

[missfran]

I was calling patients today to make sure they still needed ambulances for the 24th. I felt pretty bad calling people and saying "Hi! Remember how you have to go to hospital on christmas eve?"

You have my sympathies.

[lynnbodoni]

It's not the date that I mind, really, as I wasn't planning on anything special this year. No trips, no family visits till after the New Year's, etc. It's just that I KNOW that the people on duty are likely to be the newest, least experienced technicians, as the ones with more seniority will have probably taken time off. Now, the ultrasound is gonna be tricky enough, because I'm fat (which makes it hard to get a good pic) and I'm very, very, VERY ticklish (which means that I'm gonna be giggling frantically (and not in a GOOD way) during most of the procedures). However, my veins are rather hard to stick, and I REALLY don't look forward to the prospect of having a relatively inexperienced technician try to draw blood from me. I think that I will mention "butterfly needle" fairly early in my conversation, as in "usually they have to use a butterfly needle on me."

[missfran]

Why do you assume it'll be the inexperienced ones on duty? In my experience, since everyone wants that time off, names get put in a hat and whoever gets pulled out of the hat gets the time off. You can't grant people holiday over christmas on the grounds that they're more experienced and/or have been there longer. That's just not sensible in the medical profession.

Sounds like you have a bad time with the needles and the ultrasounds and so on. I don't envy you in the slightest.

[lynnbodoni]

My mother used to work in a hospital lab, as a tech. At her hospital, seniority was EVERYTHING. My grandmother was a LVN at a different hospital, and again, the most senior people got the first pick of when they wanted their time off, etc.

[missfran]

Wow. Totally different from my experience! But then, we're in different countries. If I were you, I'd probably be more inclined to believe my parents experiences too.

Just sayin' - it might not be that way. It's not here, at any rate. I hope you get someone who knows what they're doing.