Practicing

 Geoff is doing his associates course to become a Medical Lab Assistant, the prerequisite is phlebotomy. To be a lab tech, doing medical lab testing stuff... you also have to be certified in phlebotomy. I find that odd. Seriously. Why aren't phlebotomists phlebotomists, and medical lab techs are medical lab techs?

I wonder how many people are scared off of the program because of this prerequisite. People who just want to do science in a lab and do not want to take blood? And honestly, I am TERRIFIED and ANXIOUS that he may not pass this. But I have to put that away. He said it was the thing that attracted him to the program. So. I'm trusting in my heart of hearts that he believes in his heart of hearts that he can do this. He needs this win.

Tonight we sat at the dining table, and he practiced putting the tourniquet on my arms. He had me sit down and put my left arm out, he asked me to roll my sleeve up and said that by my doing that I give consent. I asked if he had to ASK for consent, and he said no. I asked if I had to confirm my medical record number and birthdate. He said not part of the practice but in real life, yes. 

He tried to find my vein and I told him mine are notoriously hard to find. We swapped arms, and he still couldn't find one. He tapped around my arms and asked if this was bothering me. I told him that's perfectly fine and to keep trying. He tested on Doug and found three immediately and was kind of excited. And I was kind of jealous. 

"So you'd be a challenge, mom," he said, "until I'm really good at this."

God bless you, kiddo. Stick with it, and stick with me, as you learn to stick people in the arm.  

He said they have already gotten to practice with a fake arm, learning to feel for the location of the vein. There are nerves and things in the way, so making sure you know exactly where those are before attempting to insert the needle into someone's arm, that's super important.

He had to go buy himself some latex free gloves too, so he went to pick those up yesterday. I remember him showing me how to take the gloves off back when he took the EMT training class. You pull one glove off and turn it inside out, wad it up in a ball, put it in the palm of the other hand, and pull it down inside out. Keep any germs/pathogens/blood/etc inside the wad.

They all got t-shirts. Black with white lettering, so it looks super metal. He came in beaming after lab, showing off the shirt. It is so nice to see him engaged and into something again. This has been a long several months of him in the dumps and mad at himself. Please God let the next 10 months go well. Please.

No picture, but digits below.

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10+5 lapped in house with the dog (who is very confused as to why I'm walking around inside the house like this)

blood glucose:
8am:154
6pm: 144
10pm: 175

food:
coffee
water
bowl of salad w/a sausage & cheese/sauce left over from the other night, zesty italian dressing
several grabs of pepitas 
peach
chicken parm w/ homemade sauce