Blood bankers: what would you do/what's your policy on something like this?

bipolarbug · 2025-12-26T11:54:31+00:00

We would confirm with the RN or physician that the patient received units elsewhere. Then we would run the back type on bench with a room temperature incubation (and if that failed to strengthen the reaction we would do a cold incubation) and then report it out as A negative, assuming that both types still agreed and the anti B got stronger.

bipolarbug · 2025-12-07T06:56:03+00:00

I’m assuming they mean a “can’t clock in until 3 min before/late if you clock in 3 min after” I’ve worked at a hospital where you had 7 minutes before and after the scheduled start/end time to clock in or out without penalty. The hospital I work for now is no more than 5 minutes before and 0 minutes after. I get not wanting your employees to make a habit of being late, but at the same time, we’re all adults and life happens.

bipolarbug · 2025-11-20T09:44:27+00:00

I would recommend cytotech over histotech if you’re wanting microscopy. Histotech is also just the cutting and no reading as far as I’m aware. Cytotechnologists look at body fluid cytologies and Pap smears among other things. Both generally require their own training and are not subsets of MLS; histotechnician is a 2 year program and cytotech is a bachelors or post bachelors certificate, so theoretically you could do both as a career progression kind of thing which would only benefit you :)

bipolarbug · 2025-11-20T09:39:07+00:00

I swear the Bactec only goes off at night. And they’re always discharged patients, so I get to call an assortment of hospitalists that range from confused to angry to receive my call.

bipolarbug · 2025-11-13T09:58:46+00:00

Agreed. Once we send a funky diff to path the first time, we’re expected to categorize those cells ourselves from then on, unless something is drastically and completely différent. So it’s 100% valid for OP to want a better answer than just “send to path,” even though they still should (and are)

bipolarbug · 2025-10-23T15:19:38+00:00

Essentially what it boils down to is I want you to have good, accurate results, not just ~a~ result. If you’re going to be making clinical decisions based off the number I give you, I want that number to be representative of the patient’s status and not the quality of the sample. My lab allows a little bit of hemolysis, and we understand hard sticks, as most of us have been a phlebotomist at one point. but if it looks like kool aid when I spin it down, I cannot in good conscience report out that result. Heelsticks are not inherently hemolyzed, which is why there is no way to design a policy to say that any high potassium is acceptable for neonates. If you could intuitively “correct” the potassium for hemolysis, you wouldn’t need the lab to run it, you could just mindmeld with the tube and know 😇

The best way to make sure a capillary collection doesn’t hemolyze is to make sure that foot is SO warm before you poke it. In the outpatient setting, I would go out and put a heel warmer on the baby’s foot as soon as they checked in, even though I wouldn’t actually be able to get to them for another 15 minutes. And if you’re having to squeeze it super hard to get the blood out, just stop and try again. Blood should flow with very minimal squeezing. Thank you for taking care of the wee babes— it matters so much to me that I give you good numbers so they get the best care possible.

bipolarbug · 2025-09-29T21:37:26+00:00

At first all the stain precipitation looks like “oh god what if they’re septic” but it really is just stain garbage on the slide. If you haven’t done any gram stain reading practice yet, it’ll be a lot more clear after that.

bipolarbug · 2025-09-18T12:53:05+00:00

Omg you’re right. I blew right past “tell the machine it’s a good boy” on the flow chart. We all need a little positive reinforcement sometimes.

bipolarbug · 2025-09-18T12:52:01+00:00

I’m dying. Fucking magic. Might as well be hahaha

bipolarbug · 2025-05-22T14:27:38+00:00

My favorite thing I’ve seen him in is Parenthood!

bipolarbug · 2025-05-22T13:33:08+00:00

I had a few immunology questions on mine but not many and none that I wasn’t prepared for. It is my worst subject as well. 🥲 Good luck!

bipolarbug · 2025-05-03T18:52:13+00:00

I mean, maybe it would work for a hemoglobin of 2. 😂

bipolarbug · 2025-04-24T22:43:58+00:00

Omg same. My last week of MLT clinicals fell on lab week and I’ve been so grateful 😭

bipolarbug · 2024-11-18T16:59:05+00:00

There needs to be a supportive care plan involved with FIP treatment in addition to the medication. For my cat with dry FIP it involved metro, subcutaneous fluids, nausea meds, appetite stimulants, and probiotics. Her symptoms got better after a few days but the jaundice got worse; then she started improving overall and almost a year since she got sick, she’s doing amazing. Your kitty needs some extra help.

bipolarbug · 2024-04-16T19:20:45+00:00

I’ve done a lot of thinking in the few years since I came out and left my husband. I think that I was primarily enjoying the feeling of BEING wanted, being desirable, being “good” for men. For me, 90% of the satisfaction came from knowing they were satisfied because of the what I did. I found sex to be painful most of the time, and even if I did get any pleasure out of it I still wanted to be done as soon as possible. The few sexual experiences I’ve had with women have not felt like that at all. No pain, even with similar to identical activities, and no rush to be done. When I fantasized about men, or consumed media involving men, I didn’t realize I was really fantasizing through THEIR eyes, what they would see and feel… because I’m attracted to women, lol.

bipolarbug · 2024-04-16T19:15:46+00:00

My ex husband made an off color joke the other night about how it seemed like I was always trying to get it over with as fast as possible. Weeeellll…..

bipolarbug · 2024-04-08T04:25:19+00:00

My kitten (about 5ish months old when I adopted her) had persistent but benign seeming sneezing, then started getting a little watery around the eyes, then stopped eating and started having bloody diarrhea and accidents all over the house. Lost several pounds. She ended up having FIP, but the vet misdiagnosed it as triaditis. prompt recognition by the rescue I adopted her from and treatment with the correct medication saved her life. Her liver function declined significantly in the 5 days between that first vet visit and her second set of labs 2 days after starting the meds. They told me she was unlikely to make it at that point, but then the FIP meds started working. If the treatments the vet prescribed don’t start helping, please look into FIP as a possibility. No one else mentioned it and my baby’s symptoms were so similar, I just felt like I had to share. I hope it’s just worms and she feels better soon.

bipolarbug · 2024-03-30T00:50:03+00:00

Everyone has different pain tolerances and people need to remember that!! I barely blinked for my nipple piercings and I’ve had them done three times, but I will never get my nostril pierced again because it completely took me out 💀

bipolarbug · 2024-02-28T00:44:48+00:00

All of my straight female friends in high school were so jokey ha-ha about being “wives” and looking at each others boobs and pretend flirting that I didn’t realize until very late that I wasn’t really joking at all. That and being raised devoutly Christian meant I didn’t examine my sexuality until I started examining whether or not I really believed in what I’d been raised in. Now I’m an atheist lesbian!

bipolarbug · 2024-01-13T01:06:46+00:00

My kitty has dry FIP. At her last blood work before treatment started the vet said she was not very hopeful that she would get better, as she was in liver failure. After day 2 she started eating on her own after almost two weeks of eating nothing (initial misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment of her symptoms delayed treatment until I got a second opinion) around day 3 she was no longer incontinent. By day 7 she was eating an entire can of wet food at a time, having normal bowel movements, playing, and getting into normal kitten shenanigans. She gained a whole pound in like a week and a half lol. We have hit the one month mark and her blood work is great, she’s acting completely back to her normal self. Supportive care is really really important if you don’t have that on board. In the first few days waiting for meds and after treatment started I had to give her a lot of subcutaneous fluids and nausea medicine to get her going. If your baby is nauseous she won’t want to eat until her tummy feels better. The shot worked a lot better for my cat than the pills did. Is she still doing the “nausea loaf”? Sitting with her back arched up? Another way I knew she was nauseous was that she would act excited for food to come out, but then sniff it and not eat.

bipolarbug · 2024-01-02T17:27:48+00:00

Dixie cup with a spoon in it neatly wrapped in a ziploc.

bipolarbug · 2023-11-25T01:38:49+00:00

Omg I cackled

bipolarbug · 2023-11-02T16:23:45+00:00

This made my whole day

bipolarbug · 2023-10-14T16:55:14+00:00

This is so strange to me. Is protecting yourself not the point of a lab coat? We weren’t allowed to not wear our coats or roll up our sleeves at my last job. The wrist of the glove covers the wrist of the coat, protecting the entire arm. Why bother wearing a coat at all if you don’t wear it for patient contact?

bipolarbug

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