LisaM

Thanks, and my thoughts exactly. When I first ran this person a month ago, the reactions were very clearly macroscopic 1+, and I did put a comment to that effect on the electronic report, that they were weakly positive. Then when I got her again the other night, the reactions had decreased, and I thought "Oh crap!". I knew something funny was going on, and that testing beyond what we're capable of at my facility probably should be done, and that's why I didn't even result it, and left it for the supervisor. She decided to leave her as the A-positive I'd originally gotten, and signed out my work herself, so at least that one's off my own hands. I think that the thought process was that this person isn't part of our patient base, and we don't have to worry about her, since we're only doing reference lab-like testing on these samples that come in. .. .I don't necessarily agree with all the practices and decisions that go on where I work, but I also have learned that there are times when I need to keep my mouth shut, and this was one of them.

9pm--and the verdict is.. . . . *drum roll*: We're leaving the patient signed out as Rh positive. I guess it was enough with the supervisor to accept it as such with the very weak macroscopic reactions.

^^LOL and don't look at me, either--I'm Rh-positive and my parts don't work anymore after chemo fried them, so those days are over for me!

^^Maybe you should get pregnant, Malcolm, and we'll test your "D" before, during and after. LOL! (that was an attempt at a joke, too! haha) But yeah, it was one of those "WTF??" moments and I'll certainly post in what the supervisor decided, after I get into work tonight. I don't think, though, that it was a mis-draw as in the wrong patient was drawn one of the times.

Here's another scenario that happened to me, just last night, that I'd like to toss out there for input: A month ago, I got a prenatal sample on a patient, and at the time, I remember clearly, that the "D" in gel was weak--a 1+ reaction. I repeated it in tube, and again, it was 1+ in tube also, so I signed her out as Rh positive, as the reactions were clearly macroscopic. Last night, I got another sample on this person, and it appeared that the D had weakened to the point that in gel, it was barely positive at all. I repeated her in tube again, and same thing--just barely positive macroscopically, but when viewed under the microscope, you could see many large clumps, so it was definitely positive. Just for kicks, I ran it through as a Du test, and with IgG after incubation, the patient came up as 4+ positive on the D. I left it for supervisor review, today, and will see what comes of it tonight when I get in to work, but anyone have thoughts on that? Can your D-antigen weaken during pregnancy? Unfortunately, I have no other information on this patient other than she's pregnant, because it's a sample that is shipped in from another facility for testing at ours.

We have a hospital wide disaster plan for both external and internal disasters, and we have mock drills throughout the year to make sure the plan works accordingly. Part of the drill is a call in list for the lab, where one person initiates it, by calling 4 or 5 people, then they in turn, call the next person on the list after their name, and so on, and the last person to get called reports back with how many people in their column on the list are available to come in to work. Also, we keep a list of phone numbers of area hospital blood banks, and we call them to assess their inventory in case we need to borrow units from other facilities. Sometimes we'll do that even in a non-disaster situation where we're trying to keep control of our own inventory to not outdate units if necessary; if we see that we have some soon-to-expire products that don't seem to be getting used, we'll call around to see if anyone else would have need for them and transfer them to that facility.

Best of luck with that new computer system, Terri! Transitioning may be a painful process at times, but in the long run, "change" can be your friend. This year, I'm resolving to change a few things in my life, like getting rid of situations and even relationships that are toxic, and work toward the future I envision for myself. (I also resolve to be able to put my hair in a ponytail by the end of 2011 if my hair would grow in a little faster already!!)

Happy New Year, everyone!

Ok, I checked and that "G" patient is a 75 year old man, oncology, O-Negative and also has and anti-E, anti-C and a warm auto.

^^Thanks, guys! I'll check out that link, Liz. Our patient is an older man, and I can't remember his blood type or the other antibodies he has, but I'll check tonight when I get to work and get back to you all. I do know that he's an oncology patient, though.

I love the older music! I just saw Roger Waters a couple of months ago in Boston on "The Wall" tour--OMG OMG!!! What an awesome show !! And I have to say that 'Rog is one niiiiiice lookin' guy and can still rock it out, for pushing 70 years old! I might have to break up with Steve Perry so I can date Roger--LOL (I'm gonna ask Santa if he can leave Roger under my tree for Christmas! He He!) Phil--let's see if we can chuck some snowballs across the pond at Eoin--tis the season of giving, and we should really share some of our snow. LOL And another random blood bank question--we have a patient with a probable anti-G. Kind of exciting when something out of the ordinary happens like that--anyone know anything about the G antigen?

^^Good to know and thanks! (I can just picture Malcolm listening to Iron Maiden--secret headbanger-metalhead rocker in the blood bank!!) hahaha!

So here's a random blood bank question that probably doesn't need it's own thread, so I'll ask here: I just finished a massive go-through in our blood bank files and pulled out about 3 boxes worth of workups/info/old filing system cards on patients that have expired. I managed to clear a lot of room in our file cabinet to make way for the constant additions of new patients, which will help with space issues. My question is this: I know we must always keep blood bank records indefinitely, but do they have to be kept onsite, as in "in the actual room" or can they be sent to storage? I'm thinking it's ok to send all the expired patients to storage, since the accounts are basically inactive since this group of people have died. Any thoughts from anyone?

I thought I'd start a thread where we can completely digress off topic and not worry about derailing blood bank related threads with everyday conversations, small talk and random chatting. Not that there's anything at all wrong with that, but sometimes you lose the momentum of various threads when you stray too far from the original intent. So here's the place to talk about whatever you want, even blood bank stuff! LOL and without further ado, the first bit of randomness is a big "Happy Holidays" to everyone out there in Blood Bank Land! Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah--whatever it is you celebrate this time of year! And here's a little holiday ha-ha for you:

"Carnal Filth" ???? LOL LOL! Oh yeah, scientists never partake in such activity, so they can fully concentrate on their areas of study! HAHAHAHAHA! (Who are you kidding, Malcolm?? He He!) Anyway! We need another scientist to guess! Anyone up for some clues??

^^Correct!

Yay! I'll leave the next one to guess: This woman scientist concentrated her studies in mathematics and Newtonian physics. She was also the lover of Voltaire.

Ok, I'll try Eoin's question: Is it Frank McFarlane Burnet? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Macfarlane_Burnet

Yes, I'm glutton for punishment, but the room came out great--see: LOL (and now that I've completely derailed this thread--back to the gel!) Oh yes, and I forgot to mention--I also went to see Roger Waters' "The Wall" tour, at the end of September--awesome show! Here's a link to some videos I took at the concert if anyone wants to have a look: http://s425.photobucket.com/albums/pp333/LisaM0214/Guest%20Album/ You'll need a password to log in to see them: lisa0214 (<---all in lowercase) Also, here's a link to some photos from the show (click then scroll down until you see my post at NIN): http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?30,1053089,page=5

Ok, It's getting a little stale around here and I think we need some more mindless fun! Similar to the Blood Bank Quiz thread, here you have to guess the scientist's name based on clues about that person, left by the previous poster, then leave your own clues for the next person to figure out the name of the scientist you have in mind. You can choose any scientist from any time period, living or passed on, any field of study, etc.--lots to pick from! I'll start: This scientist was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954. He is also the grandfather of singer Olivia Newton John. Ready? Name that scientist!

^^LOL Thanks, Malcolm! I got a little sidetracked with repainting my laundry room, fall yard clean up, and I've been scarce lately. I'm in the process of repainting my dining room now and hope to get it done before Thanksgiving next week! Never a dull moment. . .

Where I work, we perform the type and screen on the day the sample arrives, then if the patient hasn't been transfused or pregnant within the last 3 months, we consider the preop sample "good" for 14 days from the time of draw. Otherwise, our policy states that 72 hours is the limit. As far as saving samples, we keep about a month's worth, refrigerated, although that seems kind of gross to me. . . . For samples from pregnant women who have antibodies, we freeze the plasma to use as a titer comparison for the next time they get drawn for an antibody screen during their pregnancy. Also as an aside to this topic, regarding storage of reagent red cells and not patient red cells, we also store and use outdated antibody panel reagent cells. Just recently, we've gotten a new supervisor and she has instituted antigen typing as QC on the outdated cells whenever we have to use them for rule-outs, to be sure whatever we're ruling out with them, is still reacting.

^^Well if Malcolm hasn't a clue, then I don't stand a chance! LOL. I'll have to research this one when I have more time and not at the end of my work shift--time to go home now!

Or maybe because Dorothy discovered CR--OZ in the Flying Rhesus Monkeys, on her way to "OZ" as she followed the Yellow Brick Road ???

The plan is to give the patient O-neg irradiated units, and wait and see if his blood type "comes back" at some point in the future. . . . . Poor kid--11 antibodies! Yikes! We have a few sickle cell patients but none with that many antibodies. One of them is almost 70 years old and still kicking, even with all the blood we've pumped into her. Real troopers, they all are!