Owie.....

I got beat up this weekend.

On Friday morning, I was holding this dog while its nails were being
trimmed.  THe dog suddenly started to struggle and I got a nice scratch
on my left wrist.  Ouch....

Then I was holding this great dane so my co-worker Fern could draw some
blood.  But she was having a hard time feeling the jugular.  So I
reached down to try to find it for her when I feel a sharp pain in my
left forearm.  She had accidentally jabbed my arm with the needle.
Fortunately it was still sterile at that point.  It hurt, but it was a
small poke. Double ouch...

As we got ready to try again, I said, "Please get the DOG'S blood and
not mine, okay?"

Later on, i was holding a cat so my co-worker Julie could draw blood.
I tilted the head back and Julie uncapped her needle and moved in for
the stick.  Suddenly the cat jerked his head out of my grasp.  I pull
back my hand to get it out of potential biting range when I feel a pain
in my finger.  I pull back to see two tiny holes in my middle finger
oozing blood.  For a second, I thought, "Aw man the little bugger bit
me."  But then Julie asked if I was okay and I saw she was holding a
bloody needle.  As I had pulled away, the needle had skewered the tip
of my left middle finger.  Triple ouch...

By this time I'm laughing and saying, "You have GOT to be kidding me,
that the THIRD time this morning!!"

I'm okay now, but man I was wary of needles the rest of the day.

Then on Sunday, I was trying to restrain this beagle for a vaccine when
the dog threw his head to the side and clocked me in the jaw.

Owie......

Ah, the hazards that come with the job....

Anyways, I'm done with my first set of finals.  I got 8 out of 10 on
the jugular venipuncture on the dog model.  I had a hard time drawing
the 'blood' because the vein was a thick rubber tube.  I kept hitting
the darn thing, but because I didn't hit it properly and it was
difficult for me to reposition, she took points off.  Hmph!!  Had it
been a real dog, I would have been able to get it.  A thick rubber tube
is a very poor example of a 'jugular vein'.  Ah well.

The lecture final was tough.  I don't like this professor's tests.  She
will cover all this material, and indicate what we need to know and
then she will come up with questions out of left field that make you
go, "Huh?  did we even cover that?"  I'm just glad it's over.

I have tomorrow off and I'm going to spend it studying.  I have my
Clinical Procedures lab final and lecture final on Wednesday and that
will be tougher.  I have to place an IV catheter and I was sick the day
she demonstrated it in class. I have the idea, but I've never really
done it, so I hope I don't really screw it up.

Then I have my Laboratory animal final on Thursday.  I'm barely passing
this class, so i have to do well on this test.  If I don't pass, I'll
have to repeat it, which will royally suck, since I've never have had
to repeat a class in my life.  Also the class won't be offered again
until Spring 2006.  *sigh*

Well, other than that, I have two content kitties under the Xmas tree.

BTW, Imp attacked my foot this morning so there are more tiny holes in
the comforter.  He attacks the foot and his teeth and claws get caught
in the blanket and I hear this popping noises as he pulled them free.
Silly cat.  

Later,

Kristi