So, did you ever have one of those days at work?
Mine was last night. Because of some circumstances which make me too mad to get into I end up working half the shift alone on my weekends at the lab. And of course it never fails that the moment my sole coworker heads out the door is when everyone wants labs run NOW!
So it was last night when the ICU got a new admission at the same time the ER was sending over for stat drug screens, etc. I received a phone call from the new admit’s Dr. requesting a stat gram stain. No problem. I run around to all the instruments first to get the other labs started so they can be running while I make the gram stain slide. Then I head off to the staining sink. Now I was in a bit of a rush to get things done. That and stupidity are my only excuses. I put the slide on the rack straddling the sink and dump some crystal violet stain on it, and then I grab the handle on the faucet to turn the water on for rinsing. Said faucet has a six-inch piece of narrow rubber tubing attached to it to direct the water flow. I pulled the handle a wee bit too hard. The resulting explosion of water whipped that rubber tubing around like a fire hose gone berserk. As it passed over the slide there was a resulting shower of crystal violet- all over the counter, the walls, oh and me. I could hear the distant sound of Bernoulli snickering somewhere.
Being the devoted and good tech that I am I finish staining the slide, reading it on the scope and calling the result to the Dr. all the while covered from chin to hands in vivid purple blotches, some of which were dripping into the pockets of my lab coat.
The only saving grace to the whole incident was that no one came by the lab to see me looking like the victim of a deranged concord grape assault before I could hie me away to the lavatory with some isopropanol.
I have no idea how I’m going to get my lab coat clean. Purple blotches could be kind of trendy in lab coat design, couldn’t they?
