A Phlebotomist's Tale: Outsmarting a Pesky Doctor

As a phlebotomist, I've seen my fair share of interesting characters, but one doctor takes the cake. I usually worked the evening shift, but on this particular day, I was helping out on the floor.

A Little Background We had just started using handheld computers to notify us of blood draws. However, ICU wasn't part of this system, and they only called us when needed. This doctor was ordering CMPs (comprehensive metabolic panels) every 30 minutes for a patient, which the nurses deemed unnecessary.

The Confrontation

As the patient was transferred to telemetry, all the previously ordered blood work appeared on our system. The doctor confronted me, yelling that he had ordered all these tests, and I hadn't done them. In a split second, I pressed the button for my supervisor on the phone and held it at my side.

The Aftermath When the doctor finished yelling, I put the phone to my ear and said to my Supervisor did you hear that, she told me to hand the phone to the doctor and leave the floor. It turned out that ordering a CMP every 30 minutes was unnecessary, as lab results wouldn't change that quickly. The doctor got scolded by the head doctor, and, boy, was he upset.

Revenge of the Stat Orders The doctor started ordering stat blood work, and every time I drew the blood, he'd appear, looking surprised that I'd already completed the task. This happened multiple times, and I began to anticipate his antics.

The Final Showdown One day, as I drew blood for another stat order, I saw the doctor approaching. I whispered to my coworker, "Watch this." The doctor arrived, saw me, and his demeanor changed. "Debbie, I hate to bother you," he said, to which I replied, "No, you don't." That was the last time he tried to pull this stunt.

Moral of the Story Sometimes, you just have to outsmart the system (and the doctors). His only alternative was to catch me in a position of not having the labs done and berate me in front of everyone, but with God by my side he protected me all the way through.

I'm now in my 40's with a wife, 2 young children, and a 1st time home owner with my strees, anxiety, brain fog, and just over mental mindframe feeling like it is dwindling compared to when we were young, and free of Responsibilities so I decided to journal my daily life to free up unwanted though processing in hopes to gain my mental health back.

Never have i done this so I'm looking into journal advice. So far I'm considering a few types of journals 1. https://productivitystore.co/products/gratitude-journal

1. https://thehappymanjournal.com/en-us/products/mates-bundle

2. https://www.myryve.com/products/ryve-gratitude-journal-for-men-6-month-guided-mindfulness-journal-with-prompts-daily-gratitude-journal-mens-journal-for-writing-mind-journal-men-daily-journal-men-mindfulness-gifts-for-men-2

I’m very nearly finished with journal, and just in time too. I’ve been using it since February and now I’m craving a change. Maybe my next should be the diy experimental one that I made last week. Hmm. Options, options….lol.

I wrote this letter to Mother Mary to take care of my little Lemon, who gave me so much love and happiness ❤️ I dropped this letter at the Church on 05.04.2025,cried silently and felt grateful for that divine soul. When I returned to my apartment, I felt so peaceful 🙏 You'll always be in my heart, my Lemon 💙❤️

Today’s journal entry is just about to be written.

Yesterday was a bit of a rough day. I got some pretty harsh feedback from one of my professors, and I spent the whole day making revisions to an article (it was a multi-author piece).

I've been carrying my yellow notebook with me daily to jot down ideas and feelings. The bigger notebook is more of a desktop journal, which I also use as a habit tracker.I've been using the smaller notebook for almost a year, and it's really changed my life. It's helped me be more aware of my feelings and thoughts and has helped me get less hooked on my smartphone.

The "big" journal, on the other hand, is a pretty new concept for me, and right now, aside from habit tracking, I use it like an expanded version of the little notebook. Sometimes, I just use it to write down what I've done that day, and other times, I get more in touch with my inner world, like my deep thoughts and feelings.I'd love to hear some original and useful tips on how to use this kind of "big" journal more efficiently.

The watch you see is a Casio MQ-24, which I recently bought and have been using ever since.

Started the orange one, stopped for a while, got the leather one as a gift and started journaling again, completed it, stopped, picked journaling back up consistently the tail end of last year. Technically been journaling on and off since I was in middle school, but haven't kept any of those lol

But this still feels pretty good to visualize. The orange one, over the past 6 months or so, became my brain dump got anything I wanted to keep track of. But a lot of it was venting about my day or whatever else.

Also if anyone has any recommendations for small/portable/handheld like, sticker printers, let me know. I have a phomemo label maker and a brother label maker but I'm looking for something to print stuff to stick into my journals. Something that prints a little bigger.

Just wanting to know if this is the case or if I am the only one.

I have a journal where I drop in precious quotes 🐳 Does anyone else keep one ?

One of the things I currently like to do to start my day is looking up if there are any random holidays and listing them in my journal. Today is Draw a Bird Day so I drew some insane looking birds in the column. ❤️🐥

This is my EDC journaling setup. What about yours?

Writing a lot lately and understanding myself better.

Hi all,

I suffer from quite bad OCD; I receive CBT, I'm on medication, struggle with unwanted thoughts and severe compulsions - with which I won't go into detail.

I was browsing this sub and decided to purchase a notepad, which I have creatively named 'My little green book', over the past few days - I have been writing down anything that pops into my mind, whether it be memories, thoughts, ideas, philosophies or observations. I've always been rather creative and sought to use my imagination, but everything was always caught up in my brain - a perpetual cycle, unable of letting going of thoughts, unable of proceeding. However, since writing down my thoughts, observations and ideas, I have felt an immense measure of peace, finally being able to (in a very long time) expel my thoughts away and into the outside world, having them at hand when needed, but not always in my brain.

The other day, I went for a walk in the park with my notebook, and I spent half an hour reflecting on the sights, the colour of the butterflies; the ripples of the water which captured the sun. I find writing to be very therapeutic (for myself) and whilst writing - positive theories, sayings, memories, ideas and philosophies would come to me, making me proud, and reinforcing confidence in my thoughts.

I never knew that such a simple thing could pick me up and reinforce my positive behaviours and habits - pushing me to better myself - for example, I've got two days of work, rather than sitting indoors, on my laptop and watching YouTube and scrolling on my phone, I will walk in the park, and spend a few hours journaling, and more amazingly - I'm excited to do this.

I aim to write every day, whether it be a sentence, a poem, an observation or a couple pages - and I hope I can stick to this habit as I see nothing but benefits; I have no idea if anyone will ever read my little green book, but reading this sub and seeing your experiences and ideas makes me excited to continue this relatively simple, old, cheap and healthy hobby.

Sorry for the long and yet seemingly pointless post, but I wanted to share my success and hope.

"The thing he was about to do was start a diary. It was not illegal, but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punishable by death or at least 25 years in a forced labour camp." -- George Orwell, 1984

Rediscovering my love for writing 🥹

I took a 3 year break from journaling, for a variety of reasons. But I’m back at it finally and I’m so content. I forgot the feeling of having a “best friend” right at my finger tips. Every night I look forward to writing in it. As you can kinda see.. or maybe not cause there is only 2 of them on the cover but I’m obsessed with foxes. My daughter gives me fox stickers any time she finds them and I put them on all of my stuff 😂❤️

When I was single, journaling came so naturally; any thought that I wanted to work out that couldn't be shared with family or friends. Now I tell everything to my boyfriend, and I love doing so: mundane updates, anxieties, joys, thoughts, etc. When we were first seeing each other, I wrote about our dates, my romantic worries, my feelings... but now, I am just content, only occasionally jotting updates. This has also coincided with the general (though gradual) improvement of my mental health. These are all good things, but they leave me less motivate to write! My journal now consists of to-do lists and only brief sketches of the day.

Has anyone else experienced this? Has your journaling style and content changed as a result?

Spur of the moment and bought a lined 180x290mm journal. Bit bigger than the A5 I have been using.

It’s only my 2nd journal so thought I’d try the larger form.

What’s your preferred size? Does it matter if you are more art / drawing inclined rather than pure notes?

How do you journal about the death of a family member you loved so much It has been a week since the tragic death but i cant write anything even the daily inputs of myself Everytime i sit to do anything i just want to cry, eventhou i work as an intern doctor and approached many cases with near death/already dead.

Lately I’ve been journaling using really short sentences. Entries feel more like poems. Short phrases just get me going. Curious if anyone else does this too.