Vampires

Don't let the title fool you. I am not going to write about glittering vampires that are beyond all physical description. That would be kind of weird. I am going to write about blood taking though. If you have a weak stomach, look away.

I am in a phlebotomy class right now and last week we did blood draws on each other (this week is friends and family... anyone want to come to let me draw from them?). Although there are needles and blood involved, it is super fun. Fun might not be the right word to describe it, exhilarating? We do straight needles, butterfly needles and finger pokes. We draw from the antecubital space, hand and fingers (well we stick your finger with a little lance rather than sticking it with a full blown needle. Then we squeeze out your blood in little drips. Cool). The antecubital space is your inside elbow space... the place where most everyone gets their blood drawn from. The hand is mainly for IVs, infants, elderly, and when you can't find a good vein in the antecubital.

It's awesome. I am actually really good at it. If only I could say the same for the rest of my class. There are about 30 of us in there and some of them have kind of crazy histories. There is a reformed druggie in my class (we aren't allowed to take her blood, but she can take ours), a girl who is deathly afraid of needles (she passes out all the time), people that have tattoos (which make it kind of hard to find veins.. even though you are supposed to find them through feel, it kind of throws me off when I have this wolf staring at me), and a couple people that just aren't attentive to what they are doing.

For instance, on Friday some guys was sticking my hand when all of the sudden I started to get a hematoma (blood pooling inside the skin creating a bump). It wasn't just a little one either. It was like a marble was in my hand... and it was growing. He didn't even really notice because he was paying attention to the tube rather than the venipuncture site. I called his attention to it and he freaked out. Pulled the needle out without taking off my tourniquet which made blood spurt our of hand. I pulled the tourniquet off and stuck a cotton ball on the site. It hurt so bad. He felt bad, but at the same time I was kind of irritated with him. I put all the pressure I could on it, but it still was raised and hurt incredibly. I still have a bump and now my hand is all bruised. He then asked if he could do my arm. My confidence wasn't too high so I said no. Would you have said yes? I don't think so.

But just to reassure everyone out there, this doesn't happen all the time. So don't worry about it. You have to have someone who just isn't paying attention to have one this big or painful (and they hardly happen as it is). It just makes me look like a druggie with all these bruises (my arms and hands are full of them... I look abused). But still really fun.