Man - I was doing so well, too.

A not insignificant portion of my pediatric practice is doing small procedures - blood draws, IV’s, lumbar punctures, etc.  Some of these - like lumbar puctures - go straight to me, while more routine procedures like blood draws usually go through nursing first.  Only when nursing has had their shot does the buck get passed to me.  Recently I had been on a bit of a roll with these little procedures.  It had been a long time since I hadn’t been able to get an IV, and my lumbar punctures had been single-shot affairs going way back.  Now I knew intellectually that this was just the vagaries of chance and probability, and that this streak would all come screeching to a halt soon.  But I was proud of myself nevertheless, and I allowed myself the luxury of enjoying the streak.  Just like the basket seems bigger to a shooter who’s on a roll, those little baby veins looked like huge pipes, and I almost felt I could do an LP blindfolded.

Then last week I flub two shots at what should have been a not particularly difficult IV.  Then on my last shift I get nothing but blood on three attempts at an LP.  Damn damn damn.  I feel like I’m an intern again.  Just like the basketball player, I know intellectually that I have to keep on shooting for the slump to pass, but I’d be lying if I said that those last procedures wouldn’t be on my mind when I’m doing my next ones.