I Don't Want to Work Tomorrow.

Everyday at work I am put into a situation that may end up causing me to be injured. I work with 8 inch long carbon steel blades during skin cancer surgery that is done at our office. The cancer is given to me to process so it can be read under a microscope, the danger is the tissue I am working on has not been put into formalin which kills off any diseases and such that the person may carry. Cutting myself can happen in the blink of an eye, so I am always cautious to make sure that does not happen.

Tomorrow I get to work on a person that has some real danger. They have HIV Hepatitis A, B, and C. That is a mixture we do not get often at all, infact, over the last 6 years this will be my first patient that has ALL of that combined. Hepatitis can become airborne, simply breathing can cause a person to contract it. So wish me luck and pray for my fingers.

That's quite a combo you'll be working with tomorrow. I'm sure everything will be ok. Just treat it as any other sample and don't let the nerves get the best of ya.

It's nice to know people like yourself do what they do. If were not for you and your colleagues, medicine would not have advanced as far as it has. Who knows you may isolate a cure for something tomorrow.

Stranger things have happen.................

Good luck,

Thanks Mike.

At least in that case, you have the benefit of advanced notice. I can't tell you how many times I have worked closely with a patient, only to come in several days later to find them on isolation for any number of reasons.

Now that you mention it, I don't want to go to work tomorrow either...I'll be f-ing by myself AGAIN. I can remember a couple months ago, having a conversation with the supervisor in which he stated that it wasn't acceptable for a person to be scheduled alone. My response was something to the effect of 'yeah, unless its me'. supervisor: "it doesn't matter who it is, it is absolutely not acceptable for anybody to be scheduled alone...it may happen occasionally with a call in, but it won't be scheduled that way". So now I find myself looking at the schedule, seeing many days per payperiod with one person working at night & wondering who that poor is. Yup, IT'S ME...every night I'm there for the past 4 weeks AND as far ahead as the schedule goes. I'm starting to get a bit cranky about it.

(sorry to hijack your thread for my own sound off, Michael, but it was here)

Harald that is quite all right to take this thread. I have a correction, on the day of surgery I found out this guy has HIV, Hep A and C. I have all my fingers intact so I am good.

I know the problem with not being told about such patients. I have worked with roughly 50 some doctors and offices, not all of them tell me when we have an infected patient we are working on. I am second on the list as being in risk of infection the medical field. Not a great position to be in and not one that I am please to have the runner up award for. But hey, I am known as being one of the best by many doctors, so that should make me feel better right?

right...and were glad youre okay and disease free