And so day three of explosive discoveries happened. By all predictions, today was to be an extremely mediocre day. I slept in this morning (or as much as Phoenix and the other two dogs would let me), and sort of screwed around watching TV and showering and cleaning (because it's been raining here, the part of the backyard in which the dogs prefer to run is solid mud, which requires me to be vacuuming chunks of mud off the carpet and my bed nonstop - which actually ended with my simply cleaning Phoenix's feet). I was preparing to make a trip to Walmart to buy a plunger (for my BATHTUB) and pick up a prescription when my mom called to tell me that she was at another Walmart and had locked her keys in her car. I'll stop briefly on that because I like to quietly celebrate anytime this happens to my mom because she likes to think that she never does that, even though I've had to help her twice in the last few years. So I ran to my parents house, left Phoenix there and drove to the Superior Walmart where my mom was patiently waiting. While I was there, I decided to just do my shopping then and pick up my prescription at the other one later. After that, I went back to my parents house to shoot the shit with my mom for a little while and to get directions to the plasma donation place that I had been trying to talk myself into going to for the last week.
My mom and I discussed the situation over at their house, which is that my parents are stuck being babysitters because my sister finally has a job and is too low on the totem pole at work to be able to take days off when she's got the kids. It's really frustrating for them because my mom was just getting used to having to only work for half the week and getting to sleep in and get things done around the house, when the divorce was finalized and it was made permanent that the kids would be with my sister Wednesday through Saturday or Sunday evening. It's not that my mom doesn't like the kids - it's just the opposite - but she doesn't like having to be their primary caregiver two or three days in a row while my sister is at work. I can completely understand where she's coming from because I am just like her when it comes to my time off. I need my time off, and I need it to myself or I get very overwhelmed. Unfortunately we were just getting into the middle of the discussion when my sister came home on break from work, so we had to stop talking.
It was at that point that I decided to go ahead and go to donate (sell) plasma. I'd called ahead to make sure that my being on medication wasn't going to prevent me from being a donor, and the guy I talked to (who later would do my "physical") said that I should anticipate being there for at least 4 hours. The place is in Aurora and it only took me about 20 minutes to get there, and it is ironically located exceptionally close to the Rural Metro Ambulance company where I had the interview back in January or whenever. I had to sit in the waiting room intermittently while occasionally being called back to answer questions about my health and get my hematocrit done and my picture taken and my information input into their system. I read a new book that my mom recommended since I had left my book at home, and people-watched, and watched some TV on my phone. I ended up sitting there for a good three hours before being taken back to a bed.
And then something magical happened. I warned the tech who was working on me that I am a hard stick, and unfortunately because I was screwing around with some needles I brought home from the health fair on my own veins on Monday night, I have a ginormous bruise on the interior of my left arm, and so they couldn't use that arm. The tech called over the supervisor of the facility (which I didn't know at the time) to see if he could get a good stick in my teeny, tiny vein, which he did. While he was working, I told him that I had worked the 9 Health Fair over the weekend and that I do phlebotomy and that I'm an EMT with my IV certification. He asked me what I'm doing now, and I told him that since I haven't been able to get an ambulance job that I'm working reception and am bored out of my mind. He asked if I might be interested in coming to work there and to make sure I stopped to talk to him before I left!! I couldn't freaking believe it! I ended up having to lie there for two and a half more flipping hours because of how small my stupid vein is and how little blood and plasma it was yielding. I also had to keep pumping my fist while the collection apparatus was sucking blood out of me, and so my arm is SO tired and will be very sore tomorrow. But I stopped and talked to the guy after I was done and gave him my information, and he told me to fill out an application and that he'd be sure that he saw it and got in touch with me. Oh yeah, and I got $50 out of it. But compared to the possibility of a job, that is SMALL BEANS.
I'm so floored. I like my job. It is exceedingly boring and does nothing to challenge or stimulate me and I am just dying to do something different, especially in the medical field, but I'd pretty much given up hope that I'd ever get to work in a field that might help me get my foot in the door and get some experience. This job could be it! I'm trying not to think too hard about my availability or the hours that I might be asked to work, but I would certainly take this job if they offer me the right amount of hours with higher pay than what I'm getting now. So I'll fill out the application in the morning and see what happens. Even if I don't get a call for an interview for the Path Tech job (which I'm not counting on), I will at least be able to work in the field where I can get enough experience to transition to an ER job, which I can hold while I'm finishing my undergrad degrees and maybe even through grad school.
I feel unbelievably lucky. I'm not a social person, but I am friendly, and I want people that I have to interact with in the medical field to know that I'm a fellow medicinal and have medical knowledge so that they don't have to necessarily explain everything to me as they would to anyone else. I never thought I'd get anything out of it! Especially knowing what I know about the EMS community and how incestuous it can be, but I don't think it ever occurred to me that I might be qualified to work at a place like this. I don't really care that it's in Aurora. I don't really care about the quality of the clientele. I need that kind of experience!! It will be perfect for a jumping-off point.
I am tired. It has been a long, although not grueling, day, and while I'm still pretty much wired, I do have to work tomorrow and need to get some sleep before that. I'm going to crawl into bed and watch last night's Conan with Tina Fey (my heroine, but not in the way that I want to inject her and listen to jazz) and try to turn my brain off.
I wonder what awesomeness I'll encounter tomorrow...
My mom and I discussed the situation over at their house, which is that my parents are stuck being babysitters because my sister finally has a job and is too low on the totem pole at work to be able to take days off when she's got the kids. It's really frustrating for them because my mom was just getting used to having to only work for half the week and getting to sleep in and get things done around the house, when the divorce was finalized and it was made permanent that the kids would be with my sister Wednesday through Saturday or Sunday evening. It's not that my mom doesn't like the kids - it's just the opposite - but she doesn't like having to be their primary caregiver two or three days in a row while my sister is at work. I can completely understand where she's coming from because I am just like her when it comes to my time off. I need my time off, and I need it to myself or I get very overwhelmed. Unfortunately we were just getting into the middle of the discussion when my sister came home on break from work, so we had to stop talking.
It was at that point that I decided to go ahead and go to donate (sell) plasma. I'd called ahead to make sure that my being on medication wasn't going to prevent me from being a donor, and the guy I talked to (who later would do my "physical") said that I should anticipate being there for at least 4 hours. The place is in Aurora and it only took me about 20 minutes to get there, and it is ironically located exceptionally close to the Rural Metro Ambulance company where I had the interview back in January or whenever. I had to sit in the waiting room intermittently while occasionally being called back to answer questions about my health and get my hematocrit done and my picture taken and my information input into their system. I read a new book that my mom recommended since I had left my book at home, and people-watched, and watched some TV on my phone. I ended up sitting there for a good three hours before being taken back to a bed.
And then something magical happened. I warned the tech who was working on me that I am a hard stick, and unfortunately because I was screwing around with some needles I brought home from the health fair on my own veins on Monday night, I have a ginormous bruise on the interior of my left arm, and so they couldn't use that arm. The tech called over the supervisor of the facility (which I didn't know at the time) to see if he could get a good stick in my teeny, tiny vein, which he did. While he was working, I told him that I had worked the 9 Health Fair over the weekend and that I do phlebotomy and that I'm an EMT with my IV certification. He asked me what I'm doing now, and I told him that since I haven't been able to get an ambulance job that I'm working reception and am bored out of my mind. He asked if I might be interested in coming to work there and to make sure I stopped to talk to him before I left!! I couldn't freaking believe it! I ended up having to lie there for two and a half more flipping hours because of how small my stupid vein is and how little blood and plasma it was yielding. I also had to keep pumping my fist while the collection apparatus was sucking blood out of me, and so my arm is SO tired and will be very sore tomorrow. But I stopped and talked to the guy after I was done and gave him my information, and he told me to fill out an application and that he'd be sure that he saw it and got in touch with me. Oh yeah, and I got $50 out of it. But compared to the possibility of a job, that is SMALL BEANS.
I'm so floored. I like my job. It is exceedingly boring and does nothing to challenge or stimulate me and I am just dying to do something different, especially in the medical field, but I'd pretty much given up hope that I'd ever get to work in a field that might help me get my foot in the door and get some experience. This job could be it! I'm trying not to think too hard about my availability or the hours that I might be asked to work, but I would certainly take this job if they offer me the right amount of hours with higher pay than what I'm getting now. So I'll fill out the application in the morning and see what happens. Even if I don't get a call for an interview for the Path Tech job (which I'm not counting on), I will at least be able to work in the field where I can get enough experience to transition to an ER job, which I can hold while I'm finishing my undergrad degrees and maybe even through grad school.
I feel unbelievably lucky. I'm not a social person, but I am friendly, and I want people that I have to interact with in the medical field to know that I'm a fellow medicinal and have medical knowledge so that they don't have to necessarily explain everything to me as they would to anyone else. I never thought I'd get anything out of it! Especially knowing what I know about the EMS community and how incestuous it can be, but I don't think it ever occurred to me that I might be qualified to work at a place like this. I don't really care that it's in Aurora. I don't really care about the quality of the clientele. I need that kind of experience!! It will be perfect for a jumping-off point.
I am tired. It has been a long, although not grueling, day, and while I'm still pretty much wired, I do have to work tomorrow and need to get some sleep before that. I'm going to crawl into bed and watch last night's Conan with Tina Fey (my heroine, but not in the way that I want to inject her and listen to jazz) and try to turn my brain off.
I wonder what awesomeness I'll encounter tomorrow...
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