I LOVE my job

Working as a medical assistant can be really great & gross. Sometimes both at the same time.  Probably my favorite thing about being a medical assistant, aside from all my co-workers, is getting to meet people of all walks of life.  You sometimes get really close to the patients and get to hear lots of their life stories. Some are really inspiring, some are sad.  It kind of shocks me how much detail they feel comfortable telling me. Then you get those patients on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. Those patients that just getting them to talk back to you or smile at a corny joke is a huge accomplishment. Then of course there is that handful of patients that just bug you.  Working with so many people, DIFFERENT people at that, you are bound to have lots of interesting stories. 

For instance today I was getting a patient (new to our office) ready to see the doctor. We always get a picture of our new patients. Puts a face to the chart. This is how that interaction went...
Me: "Is it okay if I get a picture of you for the chart?"
Patient, thinks for a while then responds: "Do YOU like spaghetti-O's?"
Me:"...uh...do you?"
Patient, mildly upset: "Well, how should I know? You're the one who wanted them!"
Me: "...Okay, one...two...three, smile!"
Haha! What else could I have done...Well besides getting  spaghetti-o's....


In the Summer I loooove to be outside. My hair gets sun-kissed really easily. A patient noticed and decided to comment...
Patient: "Your hair looks lighter. Did you color it?"
Me: "No, it just gets lighter in the sun."
Patient: "Your hair looks lighter. You colored it?"
Me: "Nope. It's just the sun. Lightens it. When I'm outside..."
Patient looking intently at my head: "I could have sworn it was lighter. You know...maybe, your happiness came up out of your body and lightened it for you. I've heard of that happening."
Me: "....Well maybe..."
Patient: "You have happy hair."
Me: "Thanks."
Haha! Some patients... 

Calling patients into an exam room can be really rough sometimes. Some names are NOT spelled the way they are pronounced...
So, after I slaughtered this patients German name three times over I gave up and proceed in silence with taking vitals. At which point the patient took the opportunity to inform me of how stupid American nurses were. I Think my favorite part was that as I left the room, telling them that the doctor would be in shortly, the patient gingerly added that I should never get married.
Some people are very touchy about their names. 


 I also give a LOT of shots. Most of them in the hip.  As I was giving a younger patient a shot (this shot has to be given slower, helps it hurt less) I tried to keep up small talk. To make it less awkward for the kid...well the patient ended up farting really loudly and into my face. They didn't say anything about it. So I didn't either. Four loud face farts later the shot was done...So awkward. We both knew it was happening but just...pretended it didn't...small talking over four farts isn't easy to do. 

Being a younger MA, and drawing patients blood makes some people uneasy.  I've found it really funny that a lot of middle age mothers will ask me before I draw the blood if I know what i'm doing. I reassure them I do and then they ask me in disbelief "Do you even have kids yet?!"...like this is a deciding factor of my blood drawing skills. Silly Silly.

I Really Really Love my coworkers though. We are all pretty tight. We tend to pull pranks on each other every now and again. I can't remember how this prank started but Susan definitely got the last laugh. I found her sitting in our waiting room ripping up and throwing tissues all around...I'm the cleaning lady for our office. RuDE.

From years ago Cheri had a gag shirt made of the doctor and had everyone come to work wearing it. (we deal a lot with yeast, candida, over growth in the gut)  DWR Hates being put in the spotlight. He's a funny guy. But a shy funny guy. So one day Cheri dug up the tribute shirt for DWR and I gladly put it on to see his reaction. 

"The King of Yeast Control"

Cheri!

Me and Sandra

This is the back

DWR didn't super love the shirt. We got a smile and a knock it off from him....So a little while later I tried to see if he would approve a new variation of scrubs. "Knicker Scrubs..."

Again, got a smile, but no go.  I sure had a fun time doing leg dances in them though. 




We get a lot of interns that come through our office to finish up their medical assistant schooling. They stay for a couple months. Some are really great, but some are really clueless! Regardless, Susan and I like to pull a sort of initiation prank on them.
We put mountain dew into a sterile urine container and let it sit there. Call the intern into the lab a while later. Tell them it's urine, and we can't throw it out in case it's a patients. If they have a bad infection we cant just toss it out without culturing it.  So to check whether it is infected or not, we slowly screw off the lid and smell it. Telling the inter "infection has a very distinct smell." Then we say "oh heck," and take a quick swallow. THEIR FACE IS ALWAYS PRICELESS!!! 

One intern was a little...heavier. She sat in my chair when I wasn't in the office and day after day it started to sit lower and lower, until it was broken.  Doing work at my desk was a little bit hard for a while.  Although I found if I sat VERY still and slightly to the right The chair would still stay up...and sometimes it would randomly plummet to the floor...kinda fun. Kinda dangerous. 

We are really good at throwing luncheons every month AS well as celebrating things together.  They all surprised me with a party on my 21st birthday. 

Sandra getting her Drank on!

Sparkling cider 

I sure love my my co workers and my job!