Gawn=gone

A few years ago I worked for a small lab in a very tiny town in the south. I was a lab secretary there, and saw all kinds of interesting stuff--from people putting iced tea in their urine cup thinking that was the kind of sample I wanted, to the stacks of hemocults that would come via mail and I would have to open (like a "poop" card--how would hallmark like that?).

Anyway, I worked with one particular phlebotomist, let's call her Lisa, for about 3 months before she got fired. She was very...off, and in many ways, if ya know what I mean.

On the day of her firing, things were going along as usual--we had about 20 people in the waiting room and I was herding them through the vampire line. They would plop in the phlebo chair, get their blood drawn and head off to their doc appointment. During one particular draw, I happened to look up at the patient as the needle was going in his arm--he was fine, but when Lisa pulled the needle out, she went to recap it (BIG NO-NO)...and of course stuck herself.

Now, Lisa didn't know I was watching...she put the needle in the sharps container, and was going to just "carry on" I suppose. This is when I stopped her, saying, "Hey, did you just stick yourself?"

"Yeah, why?" she asked, nonchalantly.
"Uh, you need to let me know if that ever happens--we have to follow a protocol!" I blurted out as I tried to get the patient to stop and sit back down. He looked like he was going to bolt as soon as I said, "protocol."
"Why?" Lisa asked, "I haven't had to follow a protocol before?"
"Yeah, but you do follow one here," I explained.
Blinking, she asked, "What about the other times?"
"What other times?" I was starting to get a bad feeling...
"I haven't done anything about the other sticks, " she said.
"There have been other sticks?"
"Yeah, like every day I stick myself at least once--I've never said anything 'cuz I didn't have to say anything at my other job."

I don't remember what happened next except it involved my supervisor (I must have RUN into her office), a stick on Lisa herself for HIV, Hep AB&C, etc, etc. And the patient, poor guy, got his work up for stuff done, too. He wasn't too happy. Then Lisa was promptly fired...Oh my--I can only imagine how many people she stuck after sticking herself and vice versa. AND who knows where she is at today?

All this went through my head as I started my 1st IV yesterday (got it on the first try--thanks "D"). Also, I kept hearing in my head this funny thing another phlebo used to say over and over whenever she would stick people.

She was a good stick--as soon as the blood would start to flow she would say, "GAAAAWWWWNNNNN, gone. GAAAWWWWWNNNN, gone. GAAAWWWWWWNNNN, gone." When it was done, she would sharply exclaim, "BYE-BYE!" I don't know if she was saying bye-bye to the blood or to the patient?

So, my stick went well--I was very nervous right before and then just kind of got in the zone and it was easy. I had good veins to work with, so that was nice. The rest of my clinical day was very stressful--I didn't have my med sheets done despite hours and hours of work and then she asked for them (communication on when they were due has not been good, and we are not passing meds yet so I was confused--no excuse, I know)!!! Almost everyone else had them because they split them up last week into sets of 5 and emailed them to each other. Meanwhile, I wrote out all I had (about 55) myself and still had 10 to go. (How do you learn them if you only write out five of them???)

I was freaked out and thought I was going to go on clinical probation for being "unprepared" and yes, a few other people only had 50 done as well. But then she never picked up the sheets!!! I totally lucked out. I will never do that again and will stay up all night to finish--in fact I am now trying to finish everything else for this semester ahead of time so it will be done (med sheets for mental health, a couple papers, etc). It is obvious the instructors are a little unorganized so I will have to stay on my toes. SO SCARY.

Ok, today I rest, clean and grocery shop...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.