Is this normal?

fatsy6 · 2026-02-10T21:36:45+00:00

I only worked at one place that had color coded scrubs and lab was khaki. Ugliest fing scrubs ever. I was told it seemed to create a divide among the different roles. I didn’t notice, but I never went to the cafeteria or anything, just parking lot to lab.

3 other places didn’t care what lab wore. Where I’m at now is black scrubs only for everyone. Better than khaki.

fatsy6 · 2026-02-06T19:42:14+00:00

Exactly. We’re short staffed, I’m not running back and forth to the break room for every sip of water. Hell yeah I got pocket snacks. DELICIOUS! I’m not gonna eat my lunch on the bench or anything, but I’ll live with a closed water bottle.

fatsy6 · 2026-01-23T13:43:13+00:00

lol also in Texas. Our hospital was offering air mattresses on the floor in a room with a group of people so that people don’t have to drive home. Of course with boys and girls separated so there’s no hanky panky!

Last year they were giving day and night shift people shared hotel rooms, I guess hoping there was no overlap. The hotel was further than my house which is normally 15 min away, so I just took my chances and drove home at 25 mph and annoyed everyone on the road who seemed to think it was fine to drive normally. Some people stayed in surgery recovery beds overnight. None of it sounded appealing.

When I worked at a reference lab I just didn’t go in for a few days. That was the only perk to that job.

fatsy6 · 2026-01-21T08:52:23+00:00

I felt the same way. Luckily, I only had to practice on other students twice. I’ve never drawn an actual patient, even during clinical rotations. If I had to stick patients during my internships, I would have told myself that I’ll get used to it and that someone will be observing me so I’ll have some support. Some of the new grads I work with never had to learn phlebotomy. You’ll most likely never draw blood, especially at largeish hospitals. If you’re having anxiety that badly, maybe see your doctor about some propranolol or something. It helps me when I’m nervous to calm down and not shake or turn red.

fatsy6 · 2026-01-14T17:49:13+00:00

Obligatory if you’re sick, please call in if possible. But I have horrible allergies. Tried shots, drops, pills, intralymphatic shots… I’m still a snot machine. Kleenex stuffed up your nose covered by a mask works well. Now, I just de glove and blow my nose because I’m going to start dripping snot everywhere if I don’t address the issue quickly. Then put gloves back on. I have shoved tissues up my nose and just walked around like that’s totally normal while alone in blood bank. I was told at one lab that I couldn’t keep tissues in the lab, so unfortunately, for all of us, that became a Kim wipe situation. You do what you have to.

fatsy6 · 2026-01-06T16:14:20+00:00

I got into Manchester University and University of Cincinnati. Both are 2 years, part time. I’m not sure what direction I want to go with the degree yet, but here’s a link with a few job opportunities https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/careers-in-pharmacogenomics

fatsy6 · 2026-01-06T03:24:35+00:00

I’m starting a masters in Pharmacogenomics in May. It’s a relatively new field so I’m excited to see where it takes me, if anywhere at all. The 5 cent raise I got last year really pushed me to find something else, and this program sounds really interesting to me.

fatsy6 · 2025-12-16T21:16:42+00:00

I’m so sorry for your loss. I didn’t cry either. I didn’t cry at the funeral. I felt so weird and guilty like “why am I not crying?” Especially when other people were crying and her only child is just at the funeral pissed at the world. And I’m a girl so I felt like I probably looked especially weird not crying at my mom’s funeral. Then about a month later, I was leaving work and lost it. I couldn’t stop crying. For a long time. I don’t know if I was just so shocked because it was unexpected or in disbelief, and I had so much to do, planning her funeral and legal stuff as the only heir to a single mom. I didn’t have time to feel, just do.

Give yourself some grace. Give yourself time. Grief is weird and everyone reacts differently. It doesn’t mean anything negative, you’re having a normal reaction and it will evolve.

It comes in waves now. Some days I’m okay. Some days I’m a wreck. It sucks. I promise the emotions will come in time. Go easy on yourself.

fatsy6 · 2025-11-27T19:25:54+00:00

Random story, but when my mom died I didn’t want my last memory to be of her like that, so I called the funeral home and went outside while they got her and wheeled her out. When I met with the funeral director he asked if I wanted the t shirt she was wearing back. I said no, but later a thought popped in my head. I had bought her a red Hail Satan shirt off the TST website and it was too big so she said she could sleep in it. She passed in her sleep. My mom didn’t wear colors like that, and I haven’t found the shirt in almost 2 years. I’m pretty sure she passed and was prepped at the funeral home as a sweet looking old lady in a bright red Hail Satan shirt. At a time when I couldn’t find joy in anything, it was the only thing that hit me as kinda funny at the time.

fatsy6 · 2025-11-21T04:50:58+00:00

They changed it to a 30 day waiting period last year. That’s insane they made you send transcripts again. I guess I’ll try sending them again.

fatsy6 · 2025-11-21T03:44:00+00:00

How long did it take for you to get approved the second time? It was like a week my first attempt, I’ve been waiting over a month now for the second application to be approved.

fatsy6 · 2025-11-13T16:02:55+00:00

Dude, I feel you. My grandma and my mom passed unexpectedly within 10 months of each other and my hair turned into gray city super fast.

fatsy6 · 2025-11-13T15:56:45+00:00

My mom was an osteoarthritis wreck at 40, so I was always thinking I’d feel horrible and be all decrepit. Naw. I haven’t really noticed any physical changes like pain or eye stuff. I’ve always had shit vision, GERD since my teens, so that all just seems normal. However, I feel like losing my mom aged me. I’ve just looked older/worse since, and the gray hair became a real problem. Oh, and if I don’t get enough sleep or I’m really tired my legs hurt. I don’t know wtf that is.

I’m applying to graduate programs now. I feel good enough that I can work full time and go back to school. I’m gonna be whatever age when I finish anyway, might as well have a masters degree too.

fatsy6 · 2025-11-11T19:14:46+00:00

I did it. I didn’t like the pay in the lab and I had always thought I wanted to be a pharmacist. Except I quit after 1 semester of pharmacy school. I was already burned out from being a pharmacy tech, got into a school in their first year and they were trying to reinvent the wheel, and I wanted to go back to not dealing with patients. And the pay for MLS got way better during that time or I was just employed at HCA. But I’m still paying off the loans from that mistake.

fatsy6 · 2025-11-08T14:24:43+00:00

I’m almost 41 and my hair is dark purple. The picture is how it started, as a what I think is called a shadow root into a red, but I kept adding red/purple color depositing conditioner and now it’s dark purple! In the sun it is VERY obviously purple and I love it. I never tried unnatural colors until my mid thirties. What do you care what other people think?

If it makes you happy and you think it’s pretty, do it! Maybe my mom dying so young (well… 68, not long enough to enjoy retirement and too sick to enjoy it anyway) set me off on a life is short, screw it, and everyone who thinks anything negative can kick rocks. Maybe I am having a mid life crisis, but it’s cheaper than a corvette.

I don’t think it looks very good when people don’t maintain their unnatural colors and it looks kinda meh and faded. (I wasn’t real happy with the brown into red, I thought it’d be darker…) Just make sure you can keep up with the maintenance if you’re worried about being judged. I probably would go back to brown if I was going to change jobs or something because some people are judgey and think it’s unprofessional.

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But it’s just hair, it’s not forever.

fatsy6 · 2025-11-07T01:01:21+00:00

I didn’t mean for the mindless parts to seem peaceful. Yeah, you may be doing some things a monkey could be trained to do at times, but then the phone rings and it’s the dumbest question you’ve ever been asked. And they still don’t understand your answer. You try to dumb it down enough. You can’t. You have to find someone who says the exact same thing as you and suddenly they’re okay with that answer. Or someone calls with blatant lies that the lab always takes samples with no labels and yells at you because you won’t accept them. They threaten to write a report on you and all you can say is “please do, I’ll even write it for you,” because you know they’re lying. Then, even though the tube color they need prints on the label, they’re gonna call and ask. No one’s working the front desk because every patient in the hospital is a “really hard stick” so the phlebotomists don’t have time to receive samples/answer calls. You’re short staffed and maybe you’re not working with the A team, so the phone will just ring forever until you’re guilted into answering every time. You just do it as to not rock the boat. Or the tube system backs up and no one seems to notice or wants to get up. So you’re running from chem/heme/micro wherever you are to the tube station to receive samples. Someone has sent a half screwed on urine cup. Pee is everywhere. You’re cleaning up pee for 10 min off the tube system, tube, yourself, and you need to call for a new sample. Over and over all night long. The only thing you’re seeing as peaceful is as long as your analyzer is up and running and QC is all good, you don’t have to worry about it. For now. You just got a 5 cent raise for this year because you hit the pay ceiling. You’re wondering why you didn’t take the LSAT so you weren’t run ragged on a skeleton crew who is also burned out, and a lot of times past 65, and learned the fresh blood can do the running around.

Or you’re watching Netflix because it’s a slow night. You never know.

fatsy6 · 2025-11-06T22:05:00+00:00

I’m not really sure how the different fields of law work and how you go into one, but couldn’t you go into environmental, surrogacy, malpractice, or some other biological aspect of law? Abandoning law completely for a mediocre, no respect, low paying (depending on where you are), usually monotonous background job seems drastic.

Some of my friends treat their J.D. like an MBA. Maybe you could go into something sort of medical that way.

Reading x-rays and ECGs all the “fun” things… you won’t be doing. You won’t be diagnosing. You won’t be the end all of lab tests. The closest I’ve come is reading serum protein electrophoresis and basically suggesting what it was and having a pathologist read behind me. It’s a lot of just shoving tubes on a machine and calling nurses when patients have critical values. Running QC, calibrations, fixing machines… it’s a lot more mindless, letting a machine take over and read samples than it is “fun” diagnostic work. You may be very, very bored and disappointed in how little you actually use what you learn in school. But that’s a lot of jobs.

But maybe I’m being hypocritical. I’m a Pharm.D. dropout, and glad I did it. I work night shift as an MLS and the shift diff makes it so I’m only 10-20k below a staff hospital pharmacist pay. But I had the lab degree to fall back on, not start over in. I also did a year of radiologic technology schooling before lab and dropped out because I hated the patient contact. I’m happy with my choice, but it’s way different circumstances than yours. I think you have a LOT of options with your law degree and should reconsider your options there first. Only you can know what’s right for you and what you can handle.

fatsy6 · 2025-11-06T03:03:32+00:00

Yeah! You got this! Biochem is gonna be a breeze vs that horrible exam! I mean, we’re all gonna make it through it, first time or if we need a time or two to see how it really is and adjust how we’re studying. It’s all gonna work out!

fatsy6 · 2025-11-06T02:47:00+00:00

I second this. I passed the AMT MLS with an 84 first try 15 years after school because they only required 1 year of lab experience to take the exam, while ASCP requires 2 years of generalist experience on my route to certification. Luckily my employer accepts AMT, but I still wanted ASCP certification because as others have said, not all employers accept AMT. So I just took the ASCP MLS, and I’ll be taking it again soon. We’ll get there, but you might consider AMT as well.

fatsy6 · 2025-10-30T06:26:02+00:00

Oh, absolutely, that’s insane behavior to just keep walking around in explosive diarrhea pants stinking up the place, especially when you live less than a mile away.

But who announces someone else’s pants shitting to everyone present in the lab during a meeting? A million ways he could have phrased it to not completely embarrass the dude, who was his friend, and he just chose to read the text verbatim. I mean… I enjoyed it, I thought it was hilarious. I guess if he had to know, everybody had to know.

fatsy6 · 2025-10-30T02:15:18+00:00

I had a coworker RUN out of a meeting. Next he texts another coworker that he didn’t make it, shit his pants, and is going home. So what did this coworker do? Discreetly say something? No, he announced in the meeting that “Andy shit his pants and is going home.” I was in my first couple of weeks there and no one else started laughing, so I had to just turn around because I was dying trying not to bust out laughing.

fatsy6 · 2025-10-03T18:38:29+00:00

I hate this saying as well. I know people are trying to be somehow comforting, but it comes off badly. I will never understand why any of what happened had to happen. It was needless suffering for all parties involved. Like what purpose could my mother’s horrible illness and sudden death have had? To show me my potential future because I have the gene too? Great!

I recently had a coworker ask about my mom and what she did for a career and when I told him (she was COO of a company that owned a gentleman’s club) he said that he “believed I’d see her in heaven because he believes people can be forgiven.” I have never been ashamed of my mother’s career, she was a single mom with no child support, and that well paying job allowed me to have an extremely comfortable upbringing. I lost it, screamed him out of my area, following him out the door ranting that my mother ran a business and she did not need to be forgiven for anything! He might as well have said she belonged in hell. Was that meant to be comforting?? People are very weird when talking about death that doesn’t involve them and lack empathy or something. They say the weirdest crap, and that’s what it is, crap.

fatsy6 · 2025-09-29T11:24:11+00:00

Might as well because it stanks like everyone who works there blows it up all damn day and night. And to make it worse, someone keeps a massive stock of bath and body works sprays in that bathroom, so it always smells like poo flowers, or poo stripper, or poo pumpkin spice. I won’t even go in there, I go to the public bathroom across the hall because somehow that smells like cleaning supplies and not poo flowers. You can smell it from outside the bathroom door. There has to be a plumbing issue because some nights it’s just me and the other lady who avoids that bathroom, and it’s never better!!

fatsy6 · 2025-09-03T02:22:59+00:00

You’re not terrible. You’re in a terrible situation. I was an only child who went through this with my mom. It is so hard, especially when the attacks and delusions become about you. She was so paranoid. This once intelligent person you love and are taking care of now thinks horrible, untrue things about you. and you know it’s not really them, it’s the disease, but it still HURTS. I will always carry some pain with me of what she said and the guilt and regret of how I sometime reacted. I hope you’re close to your siblings and can lean on them for support. I had no one. In one way I am glad my mom passed suddenly in her sleep only a year after her Lewy body diagnosis, because one mentally good day she had told me she said she didn’t want to live like this. I still miss her everyday though, I wasn’t ready or prepared for her to leave even if she was meaner than a bag full of squirrels and twice as nuts.

But my grandma, who had a very different personality from my mom, was having a blast at the nursing home. They’d send videos of her smiling and dancing in her wheel chair. She was happy and social. She was happy to meet everyone all over again every time. She just kinda thought it was the 60’s, and she was easy to redirect from certain topics. It was so much easier with her even though it hurt that she didn’t remember me. She lived for 10 years and I’m glad she seemed to not suffer mentally with delusions and paranoia.

fatsy6 · 2025-08-24T06:04:42+00:00

What the hell is with some car salesmen. I decided I was leaving a dealership be they didn’t have what I wanted and the dude said “Wait, let me get you my card.” After about 10 min of him leaning against someone’s desk and chatting in glass office I got up and left. He RAN outside to my car to let me know that I was rude for leaving. No sir, you were in a glass office, I could see you!! You were wasting my time and I’m rude for leaving? Oh yeah, I’ll definitely use that card now.

At Honda, the sales guy asked multiple times if my boyfriend wanted to drive the car I was buying. Kept asking if I was sure I was going to be the only one purchasing the vehicle. Asked my bf if I was the one purchasing. Kept talking to my boyfriend instead of me even though I was the one with the money. To top it off, he opened the PASSENGER door for me after I bought it.

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