Anyway, moving on. We had to use a device slightly larger than what a diabetic would use with their test strips and sugar monitor. It is a small cylindrical device that gets loaded with a fine needle at the tip which sinks in so the needle is not exposed. There is a dial on the side which you set to a specific dept in the skin to puncture far enough to get a decent blood sample. Most went with 3, I like to live dangerously so I set mine to 4. This did turn out to be a better idea as most people in class had to prick themselves multiple times to extract enough blood. I only had to prick myself twice.
As my class mates winced and moaned like they might die, some of them refused to do it all together, I placed a few drops each into the alloted slots in the little plastic tray before me. The blood then was mixed with “reagents” (a term that I find science teachers use when they are at a loss for explanation of the chemicals you are handling) to produce something that I myself, nor most class members, could not discern as positive or negative for any type whatsoever. If this was the way of testing for blood types in hospitals the accuracy of this would produce tremendous amounts of concern and most blood transfusions would result in death. I myself am either A negative or B negative.
Though I am not entirely sure what this little exercise was about I can say it was the most entertaining lab I have ever done. Just watching all my classmates act like this was the worst possible thing that could happen to them. Then thinking of all the diabetics I know who do this five times a day on average just makes me giggle a little bit to see the guys in class wince and whine like little girls.
