This is the end...

So, after these last few weeks, this is the last blog, for now. I will very much like to say that while at first I was a little intimidated at the thought of writing a blog every night, I was actually surprised at how many I was actually able to write. Granted, I did miss a few nights, all in all, while I may not have fulled the amount of blogs required, I was happy with myself for the amount that I was able to do.

At times it was very therapeutic. Being able to right down some frustrations of mine and it allowed me to put some thoughts onto paper.  However, I didn't feel that it was any more beneficial to me to write my thoughts down, then it would be to talk to someone about it, such as my wife. But, I do see the benefit because whether or not it is talking to someone, this blog does open up communication to other people, whether I know them or not, and, is that not the point?

The blog has definitely challenged me to write down and organize my thoughts in a more logical manner. It allowed me to put various view points of my own down on to paper, read my thoughts and change what I thought based upon what I wrote as sometimes, what I said, made no sense, even to me.

It was difficult at times to find something to write about though. I am a very simple minded kind of guy and takes a little time to get me invested into certain ideas and to develop an opinion about something. This was definitely one of my hardships with this assignment. Finding time every night for 3 weeks to write about things and to not be repetitive is quite the challenge. But, if I was able to come up with one good bit of writing, would all this be worth it? If I found out one small thing about myself that I hadn't already seen, would this have all been worth it? The answer is most certainly Yes.

I have learnt that no matter how intimidating something can be, if you just do it, you'll be surprised at how much you can accomplish.

Foster care

So, today was our first foster parent class, and to be honest, I wasn't really impressed at all. It seems that the more we learn, the more it seems very much opposite of what we have come to expect of everything. My wife and I had a good discussion after the class today, and both had a feeling that this may not be for us.

Essentially, what we came to find out that almost all children in the foster care system have been sexual abused by someone as a child. This is very startling. I mean, the whole objective of foster care is reconciliation of the child to the biological parents. Even if they got removed from the home due to sexual abuse, whether it be from the father, mother or other acquaintances of the family. This is a very startling reality that we think we may not be able to handle. Knowing that a child that we may have will more then likely go back to the family that they came from. The system is broken. The people who want children cannot have them, and those that don't want them seem to have them all the time. It's a cruel life sometimes.

Another very vital piece of information that we found out, is that we pretty much do not have any guardian like rights until we adopt someone. If we wanted to get the child a hair cut, we need to get permission from the birth parents first. We wouldn't have any access to medical records or any confidential file. We essential have no legal rights to the child unless adopted. This is a huge wall for any adoptive parents.

We left today kind of defeated. The high hopes that we had for this experience is feeling very lopsided to the side of the biological parents. It's a shame that even though the bio-parents violated the rights of the children for whatever reason, their rights of what they are able to do isn't taken away very easily. The system is in dire need of being fixed.

Super frustrating...

My wife purchased a new laptop for me for Christmas, specifically for me to use at school as I needed one to be able to do my school work on. It's a samsung and a really nice laptop. One of the cool features of the laptop, one of the main selling points, was that I can link my phone to my PC and be able to essentially use my phone from my computer. Pretty cool huh? Well,I've only just recently had the down time to try and out and after an hour of frustration, I came to be told from a samsung customer rep that my phone does not support the software I need to be able to do do this feature. So, basically, what I have now is a computer that I am not able to enjoy the full features of because I have the one phone that is not supported. Super frustrating, especially for the amount the computer cost. And, its to far over the time period to return the product...

First World Problems....

So today, I started looking back through some potential Partner visa nformation as my wife and I have been talking about moving to Australia.

It has been very difficult for us with this decision. We have talked about it since we have been together and we have both wanted to move to Australia. We definitely do not want to raise a family in this country due to all the negative social conventions that have been going around lately. Kid's beng kidnapped, schools having children massacred, teachers having child pornography... There is just too many reasons why we do not want to have our children raised in this culture.

We have been back and forth on the decision for many years and I think right now we have come to the decision to finally move. We are both tired of the antics that go on in this country. For being an apparent "free country", nothing here is free. You're free to speak who you want as long as it doesn't offend someone. People who have killed someone have just as many rights as the person whose rights they took away. The system is astronomically flawed n this country. This country's priority's are all sorts of messed up.

However, moving to Australia is not that easy. We have to apply for a visa for my wife. That alone is $3000+. Not to mention, it takes 12+ months to get approved as well as all the interviews and doctors appointments and every other such thing...It's definitely not going to be easy. We are going to need God's help to get there...

A day in the life of a Phlebotomist

A phlebtomist is someone who draws blood using various different sizes of needles.

It is a job that not a lot of people are comfortable doing. It isn't an easy thing sticking people with needles, knowing that what you do hurts people and the discomfort that comes along with it.

Every day is completely different, but i'll give a few examples of what I encounter on an average day.

Our hospital has many different clinics. We have an ER, in Inpatient Services where people have been admitted to the hospital for various reasons such as surgery, illness or mental disabilities such as Alzheimer's and other behavioral conditions. We also have 3 other clinics that have numerous doctors with various specialties.

In my lab, we have 4 phlebotomists upon which we have various schedules. Sometimes, with the small amount of phlebotomists we have, work gets incredibly busy and makes it difficult to get days off work because there typically isn't anyone to cover the shift. But I digress..

On a typical day i will stick between 15-30 people during my shift. That may not sound like a lot to some people, however, not only do I draw people's blood, it is also my responsibility to process each specimen and get it ready to be tested for whatever the doctor has requested.

These are some of the type of patients that I get;

• Pediatric- the youngest child I have drawn blood on was 7 days old.
• Geriatric- The oldest patient I have drawn blood on was 103 years old.
• IV drug users- These are my most difficult people to draw blood from. Most of them have destroyed their good veins and the ones they haven't destroyed as so tough, that sometimes needles will not penetrate the vein wall. Not only that, but other times, their veins are so weak from abuse,, that the pressure created from the blood test tubes collapse the vein, allowing no blood to come out.
• Psyche- Some people with mental and also physical disabilities such as Alzheimers, muscular dystrophie, para/quadriplegic. The list goes on. These people are also difficult to draw blood from as physical pain sometimes acts as a catalyst for physical outbursts. One patient I draw required 6 people to hold them down. 

I get any combinations of the above people, plus other various patients. Some are a lot more difficult then others and fortunately I have not had the pleasure of being physically or verbally abused, however, every time I walk into the room, I can already tell that the patient does not want me there. They make quips of "Oh, here comes the vampire!" which is really obnoxious. The first 2 or three times I heard it, I chuckled, but now I hear numerous times a day. 

Truth be told, some days I really dislike my job. Some days are definitely easy then others, but ya know, over all, at least I have a job. Maybe not the most glamorous job, but there are definitely worse jobs out there.

I have really dropped the ball this week on my blog writing. So many thing's going that it's been hard to find the time to just sit down and put my thoughts onto paper.

This week, I have been reading and learning a lot about the bill of right and the constitution in my PLS 101 class for school. It has been so interesting to see exactly what the rights and these "amendments" I keep hearing about actually are. It's nice to know that these rights also affect me and how I live my life, but from reading about it all, I still see so many constitutional injustices plaguing this country. It's sad to see that the minority of our time (gay and lebians) still aren't equal in the eyes of the law. Now, I'm not saying that I agree with their lfestyle, as it goes against my belief system, however, the constitution isn't there to affirm my beliefs, but it's there to protects somebodies right to live their life without the fear of persecution. For a country that claims to be free, it appears some people are more free then others...

A day with not a great deal to say

So today is honestly a really slow day in every which way. I really don't have anything insightful or anything new or big happen today. The only thing that's note worthy is that my mother in-law went in for a surgery today and everything went a whole deal better then expected. Her doctor was expecting to have to do an open surgery due to how bad her condition was, however, with the grace of God, they were able to do it laproscopically, which severely reduces the healing time and is huge decrease in susceptibility to infection. She is going to be able to go home tomorrow morning instead of the expected 4 day hospital stay. Truly a miracle.