I DID IT!!!

For those of you who don't know me, I have belonephobia (fear of needles....a word I just learned). :P It's not so much the needle I'm afraid of, because I'm okay with shots, it's the thought of a needle being inside my vein. Anyway, lately I've been more and more curious about how to start an IV and how to draw blood. I've watched both a million times at work. When I actually caught myself WANTING to try it, I freaked out! That is a huge step for me!!! So I decided I needed to act on that, before I change my mind lol, and take a phlebotomy class. So, I did this weekend. It was a 16 hour class, so we started poking on the first day! Talk about crash course! At the beginning of the first day of class, we had to sign a consent form that stated we would draw other peoples blood and allow others to draw our blood AN UNLIMITED AMOUNT OF TIMES for the purpose of learning. As I was signing this form, my neighbors were chuckling because I was shaking my head and mumbling "I can't believe I'm doing this...." lol I still kinda in shock that I took the class.... Anyway, I survived and only had to be poked 3 times. I am a pretty easy stick because I'm so white, I'm clear! lol Here's a pic of what my arms look like two days later. (they looked worse yesterday)

The bruise on MY left arm (right in the pic) was a lot worse. The next day the teacher walked around making sure everybody's arms were okay and documented who had bruises etc. She announced to the class that my arm was the worst. lol So everybody had to come over to me and check out my arms lol. I felt bad because usually that is a sign that the "poker" did a bad job, but the girl who poked me didn't do too bad. She just went in way too slow, so blood squirted in the air. :P I was just worried someone was would either blow my vein or go fishing for it-which is a no no. There were a couple people that I watched that got nervous in the middle of the stick and let go of the needle (which is super bad) and who went in at one angle and then changed angles while the needle was still inside (also super super bad). Several more people got nervous and pulled the needle out before taking off the tourniquet, which results in blood squirting or gushing out. Another problem people had was pushing the needle a little further in or out while trying to change the vials to collect the blood. This can also make the blood squirt or worse, It can blow the vein. I accidently went in a little when I did it the first time, which was uncomfortable for the person I stuck, but I didn't blow the vein or squirt. Thank goodness... The class was fun though. It felt SO good when I successfully got blood on my first poke!!! Not to brag or anything, but David is making me add that I got a perfect score on the written exam. :) I was surprised I did so well because we had to memorize so much. Like all the different types of tubes with different colored caps which meant different additives in them which means they are for performing different tests...AND the order of draw- meaning which tubes of blood have to be filled first so they don't contaminate each other. I think my fear of needles is almost gone! I can't lie and say that I like getting poked, but I sure do like poking other people! ;D