What's In A Song...

a lot! I am a person who likes a song because of the beat it holds. Anything I can dance to, bob a head to, clap to, sing to, rock out in my car to, is what I like...rarely do I ever listen to the words! (Especially Rap! I'd rather not know what they're singing about!) But the other day I was listening to my ipod and the song "Happy" by Natasha Bedingfield came on and here are some of the words that got my attention...

"Got my dreams, got my life, got my love

Got my friends, got the sunshine above
Why am I making this hard on myself
When there’s so many beautiful reasons I have to be happy"

Of course there are more words to the song but those few words have been stuck in mind. What a true statement those words say and a good one to always live by! This year has not been a "happy" one for me but how wrong have I been! My life has really been put into perspective these last couple of weeks...all thanks to work! Can I just say how much I LOVE my job! You may think that all I do is draw blood all day every day, but do you really understand what I do? As a phlebotomist, we are the ones to collect the specimens, send them to the lab where they will run testing, and then the results of those tests will be given to the doctors. Seems quite simple right? But do you know what this means? This means we are the help we give doctors to diagnose their patients; to see if a patient has cancer, is pregnant, has an infectious disease, etc etc etc! The list goes on and on but how soon do I lose sight of my work. There have been a couple patients and incidents lately where the patients have really given me a reality check, not just for work, but for my life! (I didn't add names due to privacy laws! Just in case!)

Late one night, just before closing, a patient had come in to get some lab work done. Of course I was bugged cause it was getting close to 9:00pm and I just hate it when patients wait til the very last second to come in! Well I can't remember all that went on, but I do remember that she decided not to it that night because she was a really hard stick and I guess she wanted someone else to do it or didn't feel comfortable cause I was the only there, it was something like that. But since I was bugged she had came in so late I told her let's just do it. We did her lab work that night and then she came in the next morning to have some more labs drawn. Since I had gotten her the night before she wanted me to do it again. We sat behind the curtains and in tears she told, "I am so glad you convinced me to do my blood work last night. I have been in remission from cancer for the past 3 years and the blood work you did last night showed that it had came back and I am having to start treatment right away." Now I'm not quite sure all that went on with her blood work because I don't run the tests, but her cancer did come back. Call it a prompting or the urge to get out of there, but I am so grateful I could help this woman out! I hope everything is going okay, I can still see your face!

There is this boy about 10 years old who has leukemia. I have seen him every couple months in the past year and each time I see him he looks more awful. That's not a good word to use but its true. I don't know a lot about his story, all I know is that he's been trying to fight this sucker for a while now. His legs were so weak that he would have to use crutches. In the recent months that I have seen him, they amputated one of his legs giving him a prosthetic, and...it just wasn't good! He was bruised head to toe and his hand...it was completely black! My heart goes out to him and his family. They are so strong that I know he can fight this!

This patient is the hardest one for me to keep it together. He is just a little boy, about 5 years old, and once again I don't know 100% his diagnoses but the last time he came in "liver failure" was added. I have drawn this boys labs off and on for the past 2 years. He was once this cute mini man with reddish color hair and a little pot belly, always so happy and brave to do his labs! He is always so good and just sits there while we do our job. He came in recently, nothing but bones! Ah, my heart breaks just thinking about it! I didn't even recognize him until I saw his name. He was scared and didn't want us to it. He was in tears. He had a feeding tube. He was moving his arm around so I asked one of the girls to come help me. I was about in tears myself holding his fragile little arm that I told the other girl she would have to poke him. We didn't get blood right away so I prayed more than ever that we would get it and not have to poke him again. The girl still wasn't getting anything so with the needle still in his arm I took it and moved it just a titch and bam, we got blood! I'm not saying that it was because of me we got the blood, I thank the good Lord above for the help on that one! I think about you every day and pray that everything will be okay! You're just a little boy, you have so much life to live! Stay strong little buddy!

One more story...this one isn't so sad! So this week I was working out at Sunset and this old man came in with his daughter. He was with age that he needed a walker and his daughter to help remember information. We had a nice conversation while drawing his blood and having some fun. After we were done he got up and his daughter helped him put on his jacket. I thought I had seen a "Members Only" tag in the back on the jacket but I wasn't for certain so when he had it on all the way, I peeked my head around the man and sure enough, right there on the jacket it read, "Members Only"! I said, "Is that a Members Only jacket?" and his daughter said, "Yes it is. My son keeps telling me that its a collectible item!" I turned to the man with a huge smile on my face and said, "I feel so privileged to have drawn blood from a man who owns and still wears his "Members Only" jacket!" He laughed his old mans laugh and said, "I feel privileged standing next to a woman who appreciates it!" That totally made my day! Who can say they have seen a "Members Only" jacket, let alone knows what the "Member Only" jacket is?! Too much VH1, I Love The 80's, for me!! (His jacket looked just like this one, same color and all!)

These are just a few patients who are constantly going through my mind to help keep my life on a reality check! And as for the song...

* I have dreams and I will not give up on them coming true!
* I have a life! I have a job, family, friends, opportunities and adventures that I make for myself because I can and because they are there waiting for me. With that, I am so glad to be an American. What a great place we live in and the FREEDOM we have. The economy may be bad and our government may not be the best but think of all we have. Money pushed aside, just think of all the freedom! Thank You to All Soldiers for your bravery and heart to make sure I have a tomorrow...Thank You!
* I have love and a lot of it! Pretty much if you have made the slightest indent in my heart, I have much love for you! I take everything to heart so yes, I have a mighty big heart!
* I have friends! Oh boy do I have friends! I don't even dare go on cause this will be much longer then what it already is...just know that I love you, I care about you, and I appreciate all that you do!
* I have sunshine not only outside in the beautiful sky, but in my soul! "There is Sunshine in the Soul Today"! (ha Kasey, makes me laugh every time!) The light goes dim every once in awhile but eventually it comes back brighter than ever! I am a proud member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...enough said! (hit me if you don't know what this is...I know a couple of men who could help you out!!)

There is so much to be happy about so let's start focusing on the "happy" reasons and start enjoying life!

"Be Kind. Everyone is Fighting a Battle."

-Sister Marjorie Hinckley

I know this was long but I thank you to those who took the time to read it. It's kind of like a church talk, it's really for you more so than the people you're giving it to! Much Love Ü