#you can be 2000 years old and I'd still see you as a baby son ;-; | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

altheterrible · 4 years

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I gave 43 flu shots today in 4 hours.

Not a store record, but a personal one. Certainly the most flu shots I've ever given in a single day. The store record for that store and this season is 96 flu shots in 8 hours.

About 1/2 of my patients were kids, ranging from age 3 to 17. This was exciting because kids under 12 ish depending on their size usually would get pediatric sized needles, but the store had none of those in stock. You can use giant adult needles on tiny arms, but you gotta kinda guess where the arm bone is so you don't hit it. They don't notice when you hit the bone, bc bones have no pain receptors on the outside, but YOU will notice because it feels super gross, and then you have to maintain a careful neutral expression so they don't freak out. Trust me, they are watching your face for the slightest cue it's time to freak out.

The first 17 year old I did today was funny because I'm ancient and so my brain sees a birthday after the year 2000 and just goes "baby." So I saw this patient pop up in the system with a birthday in 2003 and so I was psyching myself up to do a little kid shot...only to step into the consultation room and find, essentially, an adult. I was like, "Uh..."name?"" and when she confirmed her identity I told her, "you're going to laugh, but I guess I forgot teenagers exist, so when I saw your birthday, I thought you were a little kid." She thought that was hilarious, and I let her pick out a cool cartoon bandaid because I'd brought the cool bandaid case with me in preparation for dealing with what my brain was picturing as about a fourth grader.

A different patient was born in 1991, but my brain switched the numbers around and I thought it said 2019 bc only the last 2 numbers of the year were showing. So I told the patient, "I'm sorry, pharmacists in Michigan can only immunize children 3 years old and up, we can't do your son's flu shot." Which confused this 29 year old man until we realized I just can't read. I was surprised he still let me stab him with a needle.

Only 3 people cried on me today. My last 2 shots of the day were 5 and 7, and their mom was yelling at them to stop whining/carrying on, which of course didn't help them calm down. She was like, basically as unhelpful as a parent can be. The best parents don't lie and tell their kids it's not going to hurt, to start, they're very realistic about the pain. They don't use phrases like "stop being a baby," or, worse for little boys, "man up." They don't say things like "stop wasting time" or "stop embarrassing me." Good parents offer to go first to show their kids what it's like, they offer to hold their kid's hand, and they reward them afterwards. This woman was snapping at her kids, telling them to shut, threatening to spank them. I was about to punch her in the face honestly. I don't like kids AT ALL and whining and carrying on annoys me, but I absolutely do not let that show. So those 2 cried because getting stabbed with a needle was the shitty icing on the shitty experience they were having.

The other person who cried was a 27 year old guy with a bad needle phobia. He was so anxious he was shaking, and he started crying when I was prepping the shot. I told him that back when I was learning to give immunizations, I had to undergo therapy because I was afraid of needles, and he said it was super inspiring to him that I'd been able to overcome that--I didn't tell him it is SO much less scary when you're in the driver's seat. I also told him that I had mad respect for him for coming in and letting me give him an immunization even though he was super scared. Then, he was trying to apologize for crying and I shut that down immediately because crying is not a big deal, and then I let him pick out a Halloween bandaid before I jabbed him. Sometimes, you gotta use the cool bandaids for adults.

The other thing I did today was computer training modules from 9-2 and omg, fuck assessment questions that ask "pick all that apply." I failed one assessment so many times that it gave me a pity pass because I kept scoring 18/20 and you had to get 100% to pass, and the 2 questions I kept missing were these two fucking choose all that apply questions with 5 options each. I'm too fucking lazy to do the math, but 5 options gives a lot of different combinations. A different question had the wrong answer keyed as correct so I failed that one like 5 times too. And THEN there was a question about what to say to a patient who tries to fill a forged prescription and that is not something you can assess in one question bc it's going to vary by situation? Fucking ridiculous.

Then I had to do training on the REMS program for like 4 different drugs, none of which I've ever dispensed. For one of them (Addyi?) the test was just 4 differently worded questions about telling the patient not to consume alcohol. Ok. Got it. Thanks.

Then I went to second job where I worked in the back away from all customers because by then I no longer was capable of being nice.

Long fucking day, and at the end of it... I'm too keyed up and too tired to sleep.

Sigh.

#whining #about me

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