IV Class

My midwife is in town! She's been here all weekend teaching midwifery classes. Yesterday I took her class on advanced suturing and I really feel much more confident in my suturing skills. She is such a patient teacher and she breaks things down in such a way that any complicated topic actually becomes simplified and it's easy to learn and retain.

Today, I took her IV certification class. I've only placed one IV ever and it was just for fun, practicing on a friend. I learned a ton today and I'm happy to report that I successfully started an IV, passed the exam, and got my certification. 

And I only passed out once!

Like all midwifery skills trainings, we practice on each other, and that's what we did today. Our first step was tying tourniquets on each other and feeling for bulging veins. I let a couple friends feel for my veins, even though it normally makes me super squeamish (it's worse than the needle stick!). I was feeling mighty proud of myself for not feeling faint during the vein probing. Then, a student I don't know came up and asked to feel my veins. I was maybe feeling a little too confident, so I said sure. After a minute or so of her poking around on my arm, I started to get that tunnely feeling. I tried so hard to talk myself out of it - "you are NOT gonna faint!" - but I couldn't help it.

I put my head between my legs and just yelled out, "okay, I'm about to pass out." Fortunately, my midwife was behind me and helped me over to the bed right away (our class was held in the birth suite at the birth center). I laid down and felt like I was in another dimension for awhile.  There were people talking and the room was spinning and I just felt awful. My midwife held my legs up to get the blood to drain back to my core and one student rubbed my forehead and talked to me while another midwife grabbed me an ice pack. 

I felt very taken care of but I was so mad and upset at myself. How embarrassing! What a major dork I am.

I felt better after a few minutes and eventually sat up, then stood up, and then made my way downstairs to eat lunch.

The rest of the class was uneventful. I placed an IV on my first attempt, which felt great. My midwife and I were able to joke about my little episode right away, which was nice. You have to be able to laugh at yourself, right?

After class, I took her and her mate out to dinner. Louis and Olivia joined us briefly and it was her first time seeing Olivia since her birth. Olivia was full of smiles for our midwife and she gave her a hug and kiss when she said goodbye.

It was a great weekend for me and I am so grateful for the classes and the time spent with such a special friend.