[Histonet] Slightly OT: Lab kids

[Breeden, Sara]

I second Linda Blazek's, and other's, posts about working in a lab as a
teen. Our hospital was too small for Candystripers and I wanted in on
the "action", so I pestered the med tech until he offered me a job at 50
cents/hour out of his own pocket. I got to wash urine bottles and
Vacutainer tubes and make culture media but I graduated to doing EKGs,
running the autoclave in the surgery suite, and a hundred other things.
There was no histo lab and I had no idea what histo was! After a couple
years of college and when the hospital finally hired a pathologist/lab
director, she asked me to place an ad in the local paper for a
"histotech" and when she told me what it was, I told her she didn't need
to place an ad - I wanted to do it. She sent me to Roswell (yes - that
Roswell - which might explain a lot about me...) to work with a
histotech for 30 days. When I returned, we ordered all the equipment and
I was up and running. That was 1968 and here I am - OLD like Linda and
having just as much fun. How coincidental that so many of us
Experienced, Well-Seasoned HTs got our start purely by accident! All of
us E,W-Ss (Experienced...) should contribute Funny Early Histology
Stories and I'll get it into book form! At last - an idea for my
profitable retirement!  Okay - back to work!

 

Sally Breeden, HT(ASCP)

NM Dept. of Agriculture

Veterinary Diagnostic Services

PO Box 4700

Albuquerque, NM  87106

505-841-2576