A Simple Thanks

[KaleebtheMighty 1,422]

Most of you probably don’t know me in my entirety. I’m just somebody running a character in Warsaw who puts out graphics occasionally and other little things. So, being that Thanksgiving came and went already and I’m still trying to get all my thanks out to everyone, I wanted to send a little thank you to the VHL community for helping me keep my mind off things in this chaotic world.

 

Little about me, I’m a certified Medical Laboratory Scientist and also serve as a Technical Supervisor for my company’s LCMS instrumentation. It’s a mouthful, basically I’m certified to play with urine, chemicals, and drugs. But over this past year, life has completely flipped for people in my career. With this pandemic, a lot of MLS professionals are feeling the pain of working nonstop in running COVID tests. When the pandemic began, I was living in Las Vegas and was working in a large medical clinic that cared for a lot of elderly patients in the area.

 

My son (first born) was born in March of this year. Combined with my job, I have never been more terrified of how things were going to be. Was I going to interact with a sick patient and bring COVID-19 home to my family? Was I myself going to get sick and bar myself from my family, leaving my recovering wife with a newborn to care for? A lot of questions, but no answers. Thankfully our hospital did allow me into the room with my wife when she gave birth, but I was still constantly worried everyday.

 

We did lose some patients at our medical clinic that we all knew. It was very sad for us. Multiple times Medical Assistants or Doctors would be sent home to quarantine after interacting with a sick patient. But I couldn’t go home. No one could come cover for me and the lab continuously needed to be run. At that point was when I first discovered the VHL.

 

It was the time consuming task I needed while working long hours to keep my mind off of present things. Granted I couldn’t complete sink my teeth into it being that the lab required a lot of focus but it was enough to keep me sane. Thankfully, I also found a job this summer in a much better lab in Kentucky to get away from the Las Vegas life for my son and go somewhere not as densely populated give the present circumstances. It’s where my wife and I wanted to raise a family and the opportunity fell into my lap. Although it was a tough trip, we were overjoyed to drive our belongings over the course of 3 days to move to where we are now.

 

So here I am, working in a toxicology lab in Kentucky primarily focused on drugs of abuse and rehabilitation rather than a lab in a clinic and still trying to stay on top of things. My son is crawling and threatening to stand on his own soon. In fact, he woke me up at 4:30 this morning with a blowout which has been just an absolute peach to deal with. But he is loved and things are looking much better for us. We even just found out number 2 is now on the way! I’m hoping for a girl. I think it would be an absolute joy to be able to walk her down the aisle in the future and watch both of my children grow up.

 

Thank you VHL community for the entertainment, the content, and general nature of being great people to interact with when I can get on. Thanks for the great seasons in Philadelphia, Miami, and Warsaw so far. I appreciate everyone on a daily basis even when I don’t respond or communicate on discord or on the forums. From figuring out who is primed to be selected in the first rounds of next season’s draft to the absolute messes that occasionally pop up somewhere in the forums that are hilarious to watch unfold, it sure is great to be involved in some way within this community. Thank you all!

[Blazzer 759]

Wow I didn't know you had a wife and a kid but I guess belated congrats on the arrival of a baby devil (jk)! I'm not American but thank you for your lab services while in Las Vegas. Stay safe and your graphics are always a treat to look at.