💾 Archived View for jdcard.com › blog captured on 2024-05-10 at 10:27:14. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-12-28)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
👴 jdcard
Have you ever noticed the various rituals and incantations that phlebotomists use? Do they belong to different cults or denominations of the Sacred Society of Phlebotomists?
I went to a doctor's office today and had an encounter there with a pleasant and very kind young woman of the phlebotomist persuasion. Now a brief bit of my personal history will be needed here before we can continue our enquiry.
I have long had an irrational fear of being poked with needles. Injections were tolerated slightly better than extractions -- but either one of them induced a great deal of stress and on occasion was the cause of me fainting in the middle of the procedure.
My wife discovered a strategy to improve the success of these encounters: keep me distracted during the process so I am less aware of the great injustice that is being inflicted upon my body. This works well, and I've trained myself to look away and focus my attention elsewhere during the procedure.
Her medical history is much more voluminous than mine and she has survived certainly several hundred of these procedures, most with only slight and brief pain. She does not cower in fear at the merest hint that a blood sample may be required.
Now back to the rituals and incantations. A very common one is some variation of "is this a good spot?". I sometimes reply with something like "I don't have this done often enough to have enough data to answer that question". Today I was asked "where is a good place?" and my reply was "I've never done this myself so I have no idea." And the rituals: sometimes they apply a rubber strap around my upper arm, sometimes it is "make a tight fist" and other times "relax your arm", today it was "stretch your arm out as straight as you can". Sometimes it gets physical, with the technician slapping or massaging my arm in an attempt to find the best place for their needle. The needle has ended up in the back of my hand, sometimes in the middle of my forearm, sometimes in the crook of my elbow, and possibly even in my upper arm.
My wife, with her greater experience, confidently extends her arm and points to the exact spot that works best. I just want to blurt out "I don't know! You're the professional, why are you asking me?" Hmmm... perhaps I should pay more attention to what they're doing and why -- maybe someday I'll have better responses, and better results.
📧Comment on this post (via e-mail)
📅 c: 2024-04-19 09:55 ✏️ e:
🏷 tags: #medical #lessons #attention #avoidance
2024-04-19 09:55 📖 Phlebotomists' Rituals
My wife and I sat in our easy chairs at the end of the day and both commented that "today was a very good day". We didn't win the lottery, or welcome a new great grandchild, or even find a lucky penny on the sidewalk. It was, in most respects, rather quotidian. Amanda was here, and Jamie spent the afternoon with us. We prepared cookie trays to give to friends and families. That's really about all that happened that day that's worth mentioning now (two days later).
After agreeing that it was a good day I commented that I have seen about seventy December 20th's come and go and I can't remember anything at all about any of them. Neither of us could call up any memories associated with any of our previous fifth-day-before-Christmas days.
So, I went digging through the archives in my computer to see what was recorded for dates that included "12-20". The oldest record I found on my initial pass through the most accessible material was a few photos that we took (without flash) on December 20, 2002 at a children's Christmas pageant that we attended at our friends' church.
Six years later there are three snapshots we took while visiting our daughter and her family in Arkansas, and last year I took a couple of pictures of a batch of oatcakes that I baked on December 20. That's all the photographic memory aids I could find.
It was really easy to find records of purchases we've made on December 20 over the past decade or more: 2012 - $13.49 for a prescription and $2.15 at a fast-food burger place; 2013 - three grocery stores and lunch at another burger place; 2015 - car parts, a dollar store, a membership warehouse store, and a convenience store; 2019 - a grocery store, and my wife got her hair cut; 2021 - two different big-box retailers fifty miles apart, and parking at the airport where we picked up our grandson coming to visit; and 2022 - a gift for our grandson from a local specialty retailer. We live such exciting lives!
Digging deeper I found over two thousand e-mail messages containing "20 Dec" going back to the late 1990s, most from mailing-lists that I've participated in. I did notice that on that date in 2010 I read an article online that was particularly appropriate for one of our grandchildren so I forwarded a link to "Reading, Writing, ‘Rithmetic and Relationships" to my daughter.
Reading, Writing, ‘Rithmetic and Relationships
We remember the days our family members were born or died. Great joy or great trauma stand out in our memories, great days don't. Still, it was a very good day, and now we may remember that for even longer.
📧Comment on this post (via e-mail)
📅 c: 2023-12-22 12:16 ✏️ e:
🏷 tags: #Christmas #memory #family
2023-12-22 12:16 📖 The Fiftieth December Twentieth
I've been casually monitoring the COP28 talks and I am more and more becoming convinced that they are primarily for show. Fossil fuel exporting nations won't accept (for good reason, from their perspective) any language in the agreements that includes the phrase "phase out" in relation to fossil fuels. Most other nations insist that such language is crucial to reaching an agreement.
COP28 Summit: Climate talks enter last day with no agreement in sight
The international agreements are probably important, but let's not lose sight of a crucial fact here. In all these economic transactions there is a producer/seller and a consumer/buyer. Even if the fossil fuel producers won't sign an agreement at some international meeting, the rest of us can certainly just stop buying what they're selling.
Don't let the instransigence of a minority and the showmanship of high-level gabfests distract you. Insist that your own local, regional, and national govermnents take appropriate actions to phase out the use of fossil fuels.
Big oil is too powerful? Stop buying gas from them.
📧Comment on this post (via e-mail)
📅 c: 2023-12-12 12:26 ✏️ e:
🏷 tags: #COP28 #StopBuyingGas #DrivingIsSociallyUnacceptable #WalkingWorks #BikesAreNice #RideTheBus
2023-12-12 12:26 📖 Just Don't Buy It!
2023-12-06 19:40 📖 The Gemtext Print Hurdle
🏷 tags: #print #gemtext #php #script #gemdoc
2023-09-23 00:41 📖 A Puzzling Development
🏷 tags: #puzzles #diagrams #HowToThink
2023-04-02 17:57 📖 How To Buy Shoes
🏷 tags: #shoes #embarrassment #lessons #CustomerService
2023-02-27 13:44 📖 Climate Action?
🏷 tags: #StopBuyingGas #DrivingIsSociallyUnacceptable #WalkingWorks #BikesAreNice #RideTheBus
2023-02-07 14:36 📖 What Can I Say?
🏷 tags: #ClimateChange #Degrowth
2023-01-22 12:42 📖 What's Your Plan?
🏷 tags: #degrowth #WhatsYourPlan #LetsPlanTogether
2022-11-16 18:10 📖 Open Harassment Period
🏷 tags: #Medicare #telemarketers #phone #harassment
2022-10-20 11:26 📖 How Can We Decide?
🏷 tags: #election #voting #information #deficit
2022-10-08 20:53 📖 A Very Cranberry Day
🏷 tags: #cranberries #oats #porridge
2022-09-26 12:58 📖 This Week's Photo Assignment
🏷 tags: #photo #assignment #scholartree
2022-09-24 23:04 📖 It's Happened Again...
🏷 tags: #age #celebration
2022-09-14 21:48 📖 How Do I Change The World?
🏷 tags: #climatechange #crisis #personal #adaptation
2022-09-08 22:57 📖 Historical Blog Entries
tags: #blog #history
2022-08-22 10:58 📖 Why Am I Here?
tags: #freedom #censorship #exile
tags: #open-source #fear #security #friendship
2022-08-03 13:06 📖 Things I've Learned From My Granddaughter
tags: #learning #teaching #parenting #diet #wieght-loss #nutrition
2022-07-26 07:21 📖 A Tired Old Man
tags: #tired #hopeful
2022-07-19 13:08 📖 There Is No Jewish Religion?
tags: #religion #judaism #christianity #hebrew #english
2022-07-17 20:22 📖 W.H.E.O.S.O.E.
tags: #exhausted #refreshed
2022-07-16 05:47 📖 Welcome To The Past
tags: #nostalgia #building #relationships
2022-07-14 20:20 📖 Finished (For Now)
tags: #success #uncertainty
2022-06-25 19:56 📖 Wow! The Lagrange TUI Rocks!
tags: #happy #textmode
2022-06-20 08:00 📖 Temporarily Relocated
tags: #tired, #happy
2005-04-23 20:04 📖 Another Operator: An M2 Stripper?
🏷 tags: #Opera #M2mail #e-mail #attachments #utilities
2005-04-17 06:39 📖 Papa's House: Thanks A Lot!
tags: #family #travel #customerservice
2005-03-23 07:20 📖 Papa's House: My Days As An Eco-Terrorist
tags: #childhood #adventures
2005-02-05 07:29 📖 Papa's House: Are You Serious?
tags: #ambiguity #context
2005-01-29 10:39 📖 Papa's House: What Do You Want To Be If You Grow Up?
tags: #goals #family #ambiguity
2005-01-23 02:40 📖 Papa's House: Hey, I Really Made A Mistake
tags: #errors
2005-01-18 07:37 📖 Papa's House: All Together Now
tags: #family #cooperation
2005-01-12 09:01 📖 Papa's House: A Walk In The Park
tags: #family #childhood #fun
2005-01-11 08:00 📖 Papa's House: The Nutty Nutcracker
tags: #family #school #performance
2005-01-10 12:42 📖 Papa's House: Carol's Quilt For Kaylee
tags: #family #crafts #quilt
2005-01-03 09:01 📖 Papa's House: Old And Older
tags: #family #travel #memories
2005-01-03 07:46 📖 Papa's House: Welcome
tags: #family #blog
2005-01-03 06:01 📖 Another Operator: Opera On USB Flash Drive - It Sorta Works
🏷 tags: #Opera #portableapps #thumbdrive
2004-07-11 02:07 📖 Another Operator: Why Only Opera?
🏷 tags: #Opera #irc #etiquette
2004-04-24 16:04 📖 Another Operator: I Give Up
🏷 tags: #userstyles #stylesheets #Opera
2004-01-26 07:01 📖 Another Operator: Oh No!
🏷 tags: #userstyles #stylesheets #Opera
2004-01-08 14:01 📖 Another Operator: System Colors For Stylesheets
🏷 tags: #userstyles #stylesheets #Opera
2003-12-21 07:12 📖 Another Operator: Only One Of Many
🏷 tags: #Opera #blog
2003-09-27 17:11 📖 ROAD STUFF: No, Not Yet
tags: #travel #stories
2003-09-13 17:13 📖 ROAD STUFF: Almost There
tags: #travel #desert #highways
2003-09-09 16:24 📖 ROAD STUFF: Day Eleven
tags: #travel #family #anniversary
2003-09-08 07:37 📖 ROAD STUFF: Day Ten
tags: #travel #family #Colorado
2003-09-03 16:50 📖 ROAD STUFF: Day Five
tags: #travel #family
2003-09-01 08:42 📖 ROAD STUFF: That's A Pretty Good Start
tags: #travel #Utah
2003-08-30 05:45 📖 ROAD STUFF: Are We There Yet?
tags: #travel #highways
2003-08-29 20:41 📖 ROAD STUFF: Last Night Home
tags: #travel #preparation #planning
2003-08-27 10:09 📖 ROAD STUFF: More Preparation
tags: #travel #preparation
2003-08-27 09:16 📖 ROAD STUFF: Help!
tags: #travel #preparation #lost
2003-08-24 17:45 📖 ROAD STUFF: Getting ready.
tags: #travel #preparation #lost
2003-08-24 14:02 📖 ROAD STUFF: Well... It's A Start
tags: #travel #preparation
1998-08-08 00:00 📖 Newman Occasional Journal: A common citizen
tags: #family #perspective
1998-08-01 00:00 📖 Newman Occasional Journal: Introduction
tags: #family #war #history #populationgrowth #perspective
⁂
©2023 🅭🅯🄏🄎 Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
⋯
