…is a phrase I’d never expect to be said to me.

I was drawing blood, first attepmt today and I kept praying silently that I wouldn’t do any harm or be the usual klutz that I am. It all went well, thank God. Thank you, too, Dr R for being ever so willing to teach, I didn’t even have to ask.

“We have 5 people coming in today for a medical checkup, maybe we’ll let you have a try at it, eh?” says Dr R, not quite smiling.

OhmygoodnessIgettodrawbloodbutwhatifIpokesomebodyorsomeonewiththeneedle

orwhatifIpokemyselfaiyahdrawbloodonlylaohmygoshIhopeIdon’thurtthemhow

deeptopokeIhopenoairembolusbutwilltheamountofairbesignificant

waaaaahhhhhDrRIdunnowanmusthelpmeeeeee!!

“Oh, alright, sure!” I answered excitedly, contrary to what I was really thinking.

After everything was prepared, the tourniquet tied, arm tapped(or more like slapped), and alcohol swabbed, he said “Now, choose your vein. Go on, choose one“.

So he guided me step by step, his hands guided mine initially but he gradually withdrew them and before I knew it I was on my own. I did get stuck once, when I was pulling the plunger and I felt some resistance, and I panicked a little. No blood, no blood! So Dr R intercepted and explained that sometimes, you need to “coax” the blood out. And that’s what he did and taught. Change the direction of the needle a teeny weeny bit, or release the plunger, don’t keep pulling or you might just pull the entire plunger out of the syringe causing the blood in the syringe to come out in a splash and the vein may collapse. If all fails, choose a new vein.

A while later,

“There you go, your first successful one”, said Dr R. “Remember the fully tattooed arm ah, the first time you drew blood yourself”, he said when I managed to draw blood from a man who’s arm was heavily tattooed with animals. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Actually, I may have breathed more than just one sigh of relief today. Today was a day of many firsts. First time with IM injections, removing sutures… it was a good first day at posting. Simple as they may be, but noobie me is so hungry for anything I can learn, as I hardly get any hands-on experience that I get pretty excited at the aspect of such things, and I do try to contain it so as to not look TOO “enthu”. People always say that I ought not to be, as I will be doing things of these nature next time, day in, day out. Probably. But as of now, I’m still wanting to learn and the enthusiasm is still there. So, let’s not kill it, yes? =)

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