a little Xtra

med knobs year 3

Er... this pic was taken last year actually. i long wanted to put it up, but never got round to doing it. Yup.. that's the bbq at Amy's house. that glorious day, the wunnerful ppl and the yummy yummy food. can't wait for Aveline's one next thurs.. :)



ANd now on .. to BLOG proper.
Yez.. miss XL is back with more hair raising, larger than life tales of her life in Melbourne. SOrry about the hiatus, and the blatently shameless substitutes pulled from emails from my dear guest writer Hilda. but b4 i lose all my readers to my dear pal, i 'm baaaaack!
ONe more week to easter ,( MIss XL stares longingly at her calender).. time flies tho'. half the semester has gone.. i'll be back in spore b4 i know it.
Last week was hell tho'. You'd think that after a test , you'll get time to stretch and relax.. but noooo, i get thrown head first into another pool of immuno. Just managed to get my head up above the water for my first breath since taking the plunge. SOrry guys, i know i've been walking around like a zombie this week and acting like i have a broomstick up my behind. forgive me .. i juz haven't been catching up much in the sleep debt and all the work load reining down plus my limited memory was just too overwhelming. but after a good nights sleep, and the arrival of the weekend .. And DHarma session tomolo!!!!! ( yay!) I"m feeling better..


GET DOWN GET DOWN..

My dear Lz persuaded me to donate blood. ok.. nah. she suggested it. and i took up the idea rather cautiously. I've always wanted to donate blood but never managed to summon up the courage to face the needle. Finally, i decided that if i didnt' try it, i 'd never know how it would go. Anyway, wat was a little discomfort in light of the lives you could save?

" Isn't it gonna be painful?" Bala peered down at lizhen and me in the brownless med library. " I was soooo glad i was under 18 when my frens in college wanted to donate blood." Although he did regale us of stories of blood spurting out of this dude's arm ( coz he had bulging biceps), lizhen and I still went ahead with the donation.

First part of the procedure was standard. fill in forms, have a blood test for Hb level. I wasn't even getting cold feet, which was pretty unusual for the scarey cat me. I had the inner peacefulness to even pick up a Times magazine splashed with story commenting about this University professors' remarks that women were intellectually inferior to men ( more on that next entry). The only fright i got was staring at my weight on the weighing scale.. HOLY CRAP. ok. i'm officially overweight. OH joy.

Passed the Hb test, was led to a bed by a nurse. I caught sight of lizhen grinning from another bed. SHe was already hooked up to the machine.

" Right or left arm?" the nurse asked me.

" er.. left. " there was waaaay too much work to be done . coudln't sacrifice my right arm, altho' i wouldn've given my right leg to get an ice cream then ( irrelevant piece of info from teh already overweight XL)

I hopped onto the bed and stretched out the sacrificial limb.

THe nurse expertly snapped on the blood pressure cuff. I have no idea how she acutlaly managed to hear anything over the din in the background. And then an older nurse swabbed my arm with alcohol.
There go all teh staph epidermidis and the streps... i mused.

" This is gonna sting a little," she said reassuringly.. I braced myself.

The pain wasn't bad, it just felt like a normal blood test. But then..

" Oh dear, it moved," the nurse frowned.

Uh oh. not good.

" Hang on dear," the words were followed by shifting of the needle, and needless to say, the pain. Think of the lecture on hyperalgesia and allodynia.. you'll know how i was feeling.

" oh gosh, it moved again," the words sounded like a death sentence.

I felt the needle shift again, with more accompanying signals up my Anterolateral column to my Cerebral cortex.

" Oh wait.. "

Please Lord Buddha, help me bear this

" Right, " the nurse patted my hand. " Your vein moved soo much! About an inch and a half!"

Er.. right. SO my veins were doing teh boogie wooogie.

Well.. not only were they doing a boogie woogie, but they were also happily relaxing. Thing is. i've the worst threshold of pain ever. I've always had fainting spells pretty easily since 12 years of age when i keeled over after a blood test. So when my veins decided that it was time for a vacation to Happy land of vasodilation, my brain juz wasn't very happy. Nausea slowly crept up onto me..

" you ok?" the nurse peered at me.

" er.. i'm fine."

SHe was still commenting on the vein. " Tell 'em , the next time you donate, that you've got mobile veins."

" hmm. oh ok. "

" you sure you're ok?" she looked a little closer.

" er. yeah.. oh ok, i'm feeling a little nausea."

" Nausea?"

I think i was turning a little pale at this point.

" Do you want to take it out?"

I think Hilda, I understood your dilemma the last time you donated. It's sad because they've already hooked you up to the machine, to stop now meant that the blood couldn't really be used coz it wasn't enough. I didn't want to stop.

"Could you wait a little longer?" i pleaded.

She nodded. But after a minute, asked again. " Is it getting worse?"

It sure was. I didn't know how long i could keep my lunch down any longer.

" ok, i'm taking it out now, " She reached down.

I didn't even feel the needle leave. I didn't even notice the wrapping of the site of entry. I just felt sooo sad that i didn't have the ability to give. I saw lizhen sitting up on the bed and waving at me.

" i'm sorry, " I told the nurse. " Maybe we could try again later later?"

" Nah, don't worry pet, " the nurse patted my head. " Once you start having a reaction, we have to stop." I guess that's what they mean by treating your patient in the BIopsychosocial context. This lady was wonderful. It's a skill really to treat your patient as a person instead of an object with a presenting problem. SHe was absolutely caring and made me feel at ease even though I was being such a problematic donar.

I tried to will the nausea away. Contracting my leg muscles wasn't helping much. Lizhen came over to say hi and then disappeared to teh refreshments table.

I stared at the ceiling and cursed my Sympathetic Nervous system and my noceiceptors. My thots were rudely interuppted by the words..
" faint at the refreshments!"

I propped my head up to see lizhen on the floor with her legs propped up and 4 nurses attending to her. Thankfully, she was ok. I suppose, if it weren't in this context, it would have made an amusing sight.

It took us both some time to recover. Even after i tottered to teh refreshments, i was still feeling pretty woozy nad had to lie down somemore. We were both chuckling over our pathetic states when suddenly the gal next to me started gesturing to the nurses.

" Faint in the refreshments!"

And in rushed the rescue team armed with towels and fans.

Well, the slogan shoudl be . " We were utterly floored by the generosity of teh donars."

note.. despite this experience.. i will definetly try to donate again. Probably in singapore where they adjust for your weight and height and give you an LA. but please.. do donate blood. There were loads of ppl there who gave up their time to step forward and give life. you 'll never know when you may need this blood yourself. The pain wasn't bad.at all, it was just my lousy threshold. SO give blood! GIve life!

Lz and I are still standing :) so don't worry