Stab me, touch me, adjust me, prod me....

The first week of the 6th quarter is coming to a close while I sit here in our radiographic technique course relearning basic radiographic physics. The week was quite intense with all the labs and having to overcome some fears/anxieties I have harbored (and many others have too) for years.

One fear was injecting someone, stabbing someone with a needle and of course, being stabbed by a shaky-handed person. Stab lab started the first day of the term. As we sat getting the run down about what to do and not to do, I began getting nervous. I couldn't imagine what it would be like sticking a needle into someones vein and sucking blood out of them into a vial. Would I screw up the needle placement and cause an injury?

When I was readying myself to stab my partner, a person from a group behind mine about fainted and walked swiftly to the sink and started dry-heaving. He didn't eat prior to the lab and essentially got nauseated by the experience. My partner had a similar issue but controlled it by getting some water and prepping himself mentally before going forward. I think the first time you do anything like this that pushes you to combat your fears is an epic experience and sometimes adverse reactions occur. I am happy to say, the only problem I had was shaky hands and my partner's "stab-hole" or injection site, began bleeding after I filled my second vial.

In addition to the fear of being stabbed and stabbing others, we are getting up close and personal with each other this quarter. We are in cervical adjusting, a muscle testing lab, an NMS lab, a PDx lab as well as an extremity adjusting lab. All of these labs require a fair amount of hands-on the body time. Being a person that doesn't necessarily like being touched by strangers, this has been somewhat challenging for me to adapt to. But, luckily I am adaptable to a certain extent.

The challenges that lie ahead are going to be massive. We are being pushed to master the anatomical sciences this quarter on multiple different levels. I feel like I have gotten a good start but there is an enormous hurdle to jump in my way. Not only are we heading down the road to the intern days beginning next quarter, we are heading toward our first round of boards. This year will consist of conquering fears and becoming competent in the clinical sciences, a feat larger than most we've overcome in our lives.

All for now