#bevelingup

Sooo, did my first venepuncture today in class. To be honest, given the fact that I hardly trust myself to take someone else's blood, I was pretty reluctant to give up my arm - but as it was, it turns out that another girl and I were the only girls in which decent veins could be found, while the poor boys got stuck twice, so I'm sort of okay with sacrificing my arm. Also, it didn't hurt that badly.

The hardest part is not actually finding the vein or even poking the needle in. It is trying to keep the needle still, while trying to fit the vacu-tainer onto the needle and undoing the tourniquet. So anyway, in true fashion (which E. was cracking up about last night when I was asking him for tips - he was literally like, the worst case scenario is if you go through the vein - and then he doubled up with laughter), I ended up shoving the needle through the vein when I was trying to push the vacu-tainer onto the needle and so had to gently manoeuvre the needle slightly out before blood rushed into the tube like it was supposed to. Then I pretty much felt honour bound to offer my arm up to my poor partner because I had transfixed her vein. She did a pretty decent job (I think) because it wasn't too uncomfortable and I have just a wee bit of bruising at the site.
I'm glad I didn't go first - the boys who went first demonstrated the importance of:
a) knowing how to undo the tourniquet with your non-dominant hand
b) undoing the tourniquet before withdrawing the needle - because blood went a wee bit all over the place. Actually, it was slightly amusing because the poor boy who was the first guinea pig is a tall sporty sort of bloke, and he went a tinge of ivory and had to lie down for a bit

I wish we had an abundance of arms and equipment to practice on before our clinical years. But at least it's some comfort knowing that we can use butterflies in the hospital, which removes the problem of trying to fit on a vacu-tainer with your non-dominant hand, while trying to minimise any movement.

Tomorrow: getting my hair permed/air waved. Here's hoping that I don't end up looking like a sheep.