Forgive me! I know its been since October since I've blogged, I've just been dreadfully busy! So, I'll catch you up on what's happened.
11/7/2011: God blessed me by allowing me to pass my ASCP! THAT'S RIGHT! Call me Erin Cook, MLS (ASCP) CM! Did you ever see so many letters behind a name?! :-D It feels so good to finally be a medical laboratory scientist! This is what I've been working for since I graduated college in 2008! God heard my heart, and true to His word, gave it it's desire! Praise be to god, for He is so good!
October- December, 2011: I have figured out that there are certain stereotypes that come along with the letters behind my name. I was hired by a doctor to be his medical lab scientist and run his lab for him, all.by.myself. Sounded good at the beginning, and everyone was so sweet. However...as soon as I got the letters behind my name, their true colors started to show. The doctor that hired me didn't trust medical technologists. How could he? The man went through 5 med techs within the 2 years his lab has been opened. And I was willing to help him out, but he was very distrusting of me. It didn't matter the knowledge I knew of governmental standards, it didn't matter what I knew about maintenance, nor did it matter that his son, who deemed himself worthy of doing my job, showed up late and drunk to work on several occasions , I was always in the wrong. "Erin, did the controls come in today? Because if they didn't, you just wasted $400. ... Erin, we're a COLA approved lab, not CLIA (the governing association of all medical laboratories [COLA works under CLIA]), so we're more lenient with our QC here. You don't have to use controls everyday. That's wasting our money. ... We don't need to keep a log of that. COLA allows us to be lenient with that." ... Really? Well, I can't work for an employer that doesn't trust me. Truth be told, I think he just wanted to hire a "Yes, sir" type of person, which he already has (his son).
And if the doctor wasn't breathing down my neck, his wife was, coming into the lab (and the woman has no medical experience what-so-ever.) and throwing away specimens that haven't been ran, being upset at me because I'd type on the computer with my gloves on, and limiting the amount of gloves that I used per day because I have a latex allergy and can't use latex gloves (which are cheaper than the gloves I have to use). At first, when I took this job, I thought that he just had incompetent techs work for him in the past. After I worked there, I realized that the techs that had worked for him were smart to get out, so I did too.
The Lord provided for me without me having to even ask. There was an opening at Health Park, 1st shift medical lab scientist, and glory be to God, I got the job. I went through 3 interviews in one day (2 in person, one on the phone), started at 9am, and ended at 5pm, accepted the job offer, and immediately began writing my 2 week notice. And before I could even give the doctor my 2 week notice, I was called by the company that hired me for that job, to inform me that I wouldn't have to go back to work. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, thank the Lord!
Christmas: ANDY GOT ME A PIANO, AND ITS ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!! EEEKKK!!! :-D
Present day: I've been working at my new job at Health Park Medical Center for a week now, and its been absolutely fun! I love my coworkers, I love helping patients, I love finally having a job that includes all the areas of the lab, and I love having a job that challenges me to be my best! God is just so good!
