It was a very big day!!!

I made my post yesterday brief in preparation that I knew today's would be a good one! It was a milestone day in the life of me, the 2nd year medical student. Instead of having our normal Path lab today, we had the dreaded Blood lab! Yep, a bunch of medical students learned how to take blood today BY STICKING EACH OTHER this afternoon! This morning the nerves were working overtime. Two of my roommates and I were unbelievably nervous. It's all we could talk about. (The other roomie was not scared at all) The thing I was most nervous about was the fact that I didn't want to be "that girl." You know, the one that passes out cold while her friend is jabbing a needle into her arm. At noon I called momma and told her to wish me luck. She cracked up and said, "Please don't faint!" Lab began, we watched a demonstrational video on how to properly take blood. Then the fun began. I began with an observation. Not so scary. The confidence was slowly building. Topher decided I could stick him. That was a little scary. He was so great though. He talked me through the whole thing. I put the torniquet on, clean off the site, got the needle ready, stuck him. Everything is going great. Now it's time to put the tube on the needle. This is quite difficult. I messed it up BIG TIME, never got the tube on, dug the needle in further, and popped Topher's vein!! OOPS! I felt terrible!!!!!! He was nice enough to let me try on the other arm, and it went perfectly. And then came the scariest part of all. It was my turn!! PIECE OF CAKE. I let Jason stick me, and he did the best job. I don't even think I'm going to bruise. Topher on the other hand will have a huge bruise. Poor guy!!
After all that fun, we had a Physical Exam quiz in our next lab. This could have gone better, but I think I was still so worked up from the blood thing that it interfered. Oh well. It's a pass/fail class. No big deal. I'll do better on the next one. Alright, that is all that needs to be reported for the day. I'm super proud of myself. I met my biggest fear face to face today, and I crushed it.
~M
PS. There are pictures documenting all of this fun. I just need to get them from Jean. Then I will post them.