Posts Tagged hospital

Earlier in the week I had to take a friend (in extreme abdominal pain) to the emergency room for diagnosis and treatment, and of course the first thing they want to do is draw blood. So, they insert an IV, but it draws too slowly, making the sample unusable too quickly.

So, they try again. Nine more times over the next few hours, on the arms, the hands, the wrists. Each one either “the vein blows” or they can’t get a draw.  After the ninth attempt the two nurses decide to call in another nurse named Jody.  If anyone can find the spot, they say, it’s Jody.

Jody does it successfully on the first try. In the inside of the right arm, where one almost always finds one but the others couldn’t.

What was Jody’s secret? She doesn’t trust her sight. She feels for the right place. A proper IV site has a certain feel to the touch. A site might look like a vein but unless it feels a certain way it won’t work.

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A lot of times I can’t trust what I see.

Those times that are what faith is for.

Faith allows me to feel my way around when looks are deceiving.

Faith allows me to find the right place to try again. And succeed.

(my friend is doing fine now, by the way, and recovering with anti-inflammatory medication).

image credit: Beelitz Heilstätten via stock.xchng