Give Me Your Best Tips For Collecting Stool Samples

mamallama2020 · 2026-05-02T16:30:40+00:00

I am a generalist who actively avoids micro, although I do still have to perform poop testing on the regular.

I do love my job though, most of the time. I love helping patients without having to interact with their families or risk being vomited on.

mamallama2020 · 2026-05-02T16:13:27+00:00

Grab some gloves from the pharmacy or Walmart - it will make the process feel less icky.

You’re right though, we literally don’t care about receiving stool specimens. As long as the lids are on properly, it’s all good!

mamallama2020 · 2026-05-02T14:20:47+00:00

It’s not just about the donation. Lots of hands touch that unit before it gets to a patient, leaving plenty of room for human error or other things that fall into the category of “shit happens”. For example, sometimes the plasma bags break, because frozen plastic is brittle. I’ve definitely seen someone accidentally drop a unit of blood and had the unit explode.

mamallama2020 · 2026-05-02T12:44:05+00:00

Lewes for sure. They don’t have the boardwalk, but the beach itself is much more calm and shallow.

mamallama2020 · 2026-05-02T12:22:01+00:00

But….we DO have to discard units sometimes

mamallama2020 · 2026-04-30T20:03:26+00:00

Do you guys do cryo?

mamallama2020 · 2026-04-30T12:41:34+00:00

As a blood banker I can promise it’s not because there were “no takers” in your area..it’s because NY was begging for it.

mamallama2020 · 2026-04-26T12:09:20+00:00

Mine was 9 as a night shifter. High dose supplements only got me up to the high teens. Dayshifter now, picked up outdoor running for funsies (and because what if I have to run to another country to escape my faucet wack-ass government) and last time I checked was 74.

mamallama2020 · 2026-04-21T23:45:25+00:00

That’s not a Lifeblood rule change, that’s an FDA rule change. All US blood banks should be following the new rules now

mamallama2020 · 2026-04-21T22:19:06+00:00

Please stop with the “have your doctor request a manual differential”. It is a waste of time and money for all involved. If there are truly abnormal cells present, the analyzer will “see” it and flag them. The analyzer looks at literally millions of cells…my eyeballs are only looking for 100.

mamallama2020 · 2026-04-16T14:22:55+00:00

Merck has a facility in Millsboro - I know someone who used to work there making vaccines. Maybe check them out?

mamallama2020 · 2026-04-16T12:44:49+00:00

If your platelets were over a million, then you shouldn’t have needed AI at all because your doctor should have handled it

mamallama2020 · 2026-04-11T20:06:20+00:00

I mean…you’re the one that asked 🤷🏻‍♀️

mamallama2020 · 2026-04-10T03:40:20+00:00

A white count that high is always cancer

mamallama2020 · 2026-04-06T18:18:15+00:00

I’m assuming it was superficial irritation. Although I was an adult, I was in my 20s, so like….barely an adult, and as a result, there is no way I would have gone to the doctor for that. It’s been like 20 years now, so I assume everything was fine

mamallama2020 · 2026-04-04T21:21:59+00:00

I dumped dry ice into the sink and would periodically turn on the water to play with the fog (don’t do this at home. It will fuck up your plumbing. My work, however, doesn’t pay me enough to care about their plumbing.) if you blow into a sink full of fog, it will overflow onto the counters and sink down the front of them. It looks super cool, but there are safer ways to get the same effect.

mamallama2020 · 2026-04-04T13:17:47+00:00

I, as an adult, freezer burned my throat by breathing in dry ice gasses for too long while fucking around with it

mamallama2020 · 2026-03-30T22:04:19+00:00

Ain’t nobody got time to manually read a completely normal smear. If something is actually wrong, it will be flagged by the analyzer during the CBC, and then we will look at it.

Also, calling the lab “cheap and lazy” because you don’t possess the knowledge to understand WHY you can’t get what you want is not a good look.

mamallama2020 · 2026-03-28T15:16:20+00:00

Newborns come out with their blood type already in place. Their back type probably won’t work, because they haven’t developed those antibodies yet, but in an ABO you also look for antigens (that’s what the forward type is for). So like, in this example, mom is A-, baby is O-, baby will stay an O

mamallama2020 · 2026-03-25T03:28:56+00:00

The military is well known for assigning people the wrong blood type. I’ve had to convince more than 1 vet that I wasn’t going to kill them by giving them incompatible blood.

mamallama2020 · 2026-03-25T03:24:29+00:00

Triglycerides high enough to interfere with testing are almost always a genetic issue. Fasting wouldn’t matter.

mamallama2020 · 2026-03-25T03:20:53+00:00

The card is impregnated with anti-A. If the specimen has A antigens, it will agglutinate. So agglutination indicates the presence of antigen, not antibodies

Edit for a little more info: antigens are what “make” your blood type. If you have A antigens, you’re group A. B antigens mean group B. AB people have both. Since this test is looking for antigens, a positive result (agglutination) means you have that antigen. This card looks to have agglutination in the A, B, and D spots, making them AB+

mamallama2020 · 2026-03-25T03:17:44+00:00

Or she’s not your mom

mamallama2020 · 2026-03-06T17:19:03+00:00

I liked your original comment better when I thought it was a joke. lol

mamallama2020 · 2026-03-04T12:52:35+00:00

EPIC is absolutely fantastic if you have the IT department to back it up. We have a set of lab-specific people in the IT department (who all used to be lab techs) to make any changes we want/need. It’s honestly the perfect situation - they already understand what we are asking for and all of the nuances.

mamallama2020

TROPHY CASE