Anyways, if you want to read those, they're from Extraordinary Cases in Emergency Medicine by Douglas Brunette, specifically Chapter 10, "Intriguing"
That chapter also features someone spreading weed on a finger for pain relief (it didn't work, but they did let him keep the weed), an impromptu nose piercing with a bullet (don't run towards the gunshots!), a teen putting lemonade in a urine test cup ("the lemonade was sterile, and the pregnancy test was negative"), and quote "I'm not sexually active, I'm married" (which I'm not entirely sure how to interpret)
Key learning points
- Paruresis is a psychiatric condition that describes a social phobia of urinating in public bathrooms.
- This patient did not have paruresis.
If this sorta stuff is what I have to look forward to doing EM, damn is it gonna be a wild ride.
Oh geez, the next case has a figure with caption "Verbatim response of a patient who was asked why he urinated on three walls of his examination room"
The reason? He was "marking his territory."
The outcome is also intriguing: "We referred the patient to the OB/GYN clinic for her 'depo shot,' but we did not provide her with a 'panic attack.'"
But in all seriousness, I can't say I like doing them. I'm terrified I'm going to, like, break the baby's leg or something. They're so small and I'm, well, not.
So, in phlebotomy, we use two different needles. Straight needles attach directly to the hub, while butterflies have some tubing between needle and hub.
Anyway, I went out with a phlebotomist who I've not really worked with just now, and when he asked if I was "comfortable with straights", I had to stop myself for reasons you can probably guess
The recent CDC COVID guidance
I get daily emails from ASCP with lab news and such, and today's led with that. It's great, one of the sources had a remark about how it wasn't expected to increased transmission rates. Not because the new guidance is safe, mind you. Because we're already letting it run rampant anyways. It's hard to let it run more rampant. We're really doing a just brilliant job with public health, huh? /s
Afterwards, my trainer made a remark about how I'd probably never drawn that many before and I was just like "Oh, no. I've drawn more. That wasn't even close."
Today, I drew 7 tubes from a patient. Not the most I've ever drawn, but he was looking at them and asked me if he could take a photo. It is a pretty astonishing amount. I told him yes and he's just looking at them like "wow!".
(Incidentally, the most I've ever drawn was, like, 15. There were more light blues in that set then there were total tubes in this draw!)
pol joke
(I mean, how do you think the US gets away with it? Just don't formally go to war, dumbass!)
Phlebotomist. Cyberwitch. Artist. Fighter. Accidental breaker of computers.
Genderfluid enby. Pansexual/-romantic. Kitsune-kin (9-tailed)/Incubus-kin. Plural, with a bunch of headmates.
DAMNED PROUD ANTIFASCIST and an anarchocommunist.
Be warned: In theory, I post both lewd/NSFW and incredibly personal stuff. 🔞
(In practice, it's been a while, but who knows?)