Icky

Anthony came home from day care yesterday with a runny nose (clear, but runny). He acted whiny and complainy all evening, too...well...except when we were at Nana and Grandpa's. He was an angel then, of course.

During the course of the night, he developed a nasty cough. I don't know why we didn't put it up at bedtime, but at midnight we were awake putting the humidifier in his room. After that Anthony slept fairly well. I could hear him tossing and turning, but he didn't come into our room until 5:20. I brought him back to his bed and we slept there until I got up at 6:00. He's still sleeping now, and I hope he'll sleep for a little while longer.

His temperature never went above 99.9, so we didn't give any Tylenol. I'll keep him home from school today so that I can watch for a fever. I'm fairly certain this will lead to an ear infection if the cold lasts another day. The ENT told me last month that if Anthony has another ear infection, she'll replace his ear tubes. The left one is barely functioning and the right one is not functioning at all. The hope was that the tubes would stay in place for a year. It was June 11th last year when he had his mastoid infection and had tubes placed in an emergency midnight surgery (some pictures are missing from that link because I had too many pictures up at photobucket). It's been almost a year, but his little ears are just not ready to handle the stress of fluid in there on their own.

In other news, school is totally going to kick my butt this semester. It's not HARD material, it's just totally NEW material. I have never had a class in phlebotomy , urinalysis , parasitology or mycology . And since this is the summer semester, every class is long and there are tests just about every week...it's a little frightening! Of course, each semester will be like this until I enter the hospital next June...all new material to ingest.

Once I enter the hospital for my actual clinicals next June, I will "work" (in quotes because it's student work; stuff I don't get paid for) for 24 weeks in a laboratory at a local hospital (which one is yet to be determined). I'll work on the school's schedule, meaning I get a two week break at the end of the summer semester, and weekends and holidays off. Clinicals will end sometime in early December 2007, and I will also graduate that month. Then I get to prepare for my licensing exam. After I pass THAT, I will be able to officially practice medicine (muh-wa-ha-ha). Still a long haul, but it's going to be worth it!

For my phlebotomy class, I have to get 10 successful venipunctures (that would be sticking someone with a needle, accessing their vein and drawing blood from it). We've been practicing on a dummy arm for a week (and if you can't hit the dummy's vein you're, well, a dummy) and on Wednesday a classmate and I decided we were ready to go at each other's veins. I have great veins in my arms...they're obvious in their location, direction and they don't roll. She hit my vein first try and would have gotten my blood, but somehow she pulled the needle out while reaching for the tube to put my blood in. Her veins, on the other hand, are not obvious. Even with the tourniquet on, I couldn't really feel or see the vein. Still, I went for it (gently, thankyouverymuch) and totally missed. It helps me a little that my instructor said she probably wouldn't have been able to find this girl's vein. The best part about it all? Neither of us walked away with a bruise on our arms. We'll try again Monday. I've offered each arm to the students in the class. I don't mind the needle stick (it doesn't hurt me), and we all need the practice! There are a couple of people in the class who have nice veins. Maybe one of them will let me stick them. Wish me luck! It's pretty nerve wracking to go at someone with a 21-guage needle for the first time...especially with 15 other people staring you down while you do it!

I'll keep you all posted on how Anthony's doing. And on how I'm doing in phlebotomy.

Love, Laurie