Saving Lives and Eating Alone- A tale of two jobs

The best part of my long work day yesterday was the evening shift spent in blood bank. I had just one GI bleed who only took one unit, but since I like to pump myself up, yes, I did save a life...the rest of the time, I was doing type and screens for pre-natals.
That little gel card on the side is what has made Blood Banking so much quicker! For antibody screens- this is where you mix patient serum with known cells to see if they have any abnormal antibodies to known antigens. We do two different cells with serum and if there is a positive reaction, a red clump at the top (this card is all negatives), then we have to do testing to see what the antibody is and then screen type specific donor units for negative reactions for that antigen. If everything is negative on the antibody screen , then we just have to pick a any type specifi unit that matches their type. Wow, that kind of made it sound like it's easy...if it's quiet, Blood bank can be the best place to work in the lab in my opinion. Even the busy times can be good. It amazes me how much has changed in 20 years in the lab.

So that's my extra shift work that I have been doing on the evening shift to make money and to help out with the tech shortage. By the way, if you know any young person looking for a steady career, Medical Technology including Cytology has a great out look. It's an active job with a lot of background knowledge and I have enjoyed working in the 4/5 labs that I have worked in the past 20 years. ( Lab people are nicer than teachers....another blog....) Let's just say that there is more of a team effort working in healthcare.

Now my day job was a lot different yesterday. I came from a very productive meeting with a doctor and two of our staff where we worked out some reporting glitches to emails that just pissed me off. And then the further I got into the emails, the more I got aggravated by what my job is supposed to be and what is expected by everyone else. I go back to the fact that I am only part time and some of the the things that is expected by others can no way in hell be done by a part timer and still be able to do what I think I should be doing. Thank God for a great supervisor. However, yesterday I just wasn't feeling the love and decided to eat lunch alone and go on the internet. I think I shocked two of my coworkers by telling them that I just didn't want to go to lunch with them due to the issues. You know, it was kind of empowering telling them how I felt.

Today I am off to the big sale at Macys with a friend to start some Christmas shopping. As I type, I have two "motors" going, Mini is lying across my stomach and Stash was just over my shoulder and is now annoying me by trying to chew on the computer. He's a nudge! No wonder he gets his whiskers chewed off!