707th Friday Blog Roundup

This is a tale of an amazing blood draw.  The ChickieNob needed to have blood drawn, and she was nervous.  She sat down in the chair and gave her arm.  The phlebotomist felt around for a bit, and finally admitted that she didn’t feel confident and wanted a second opinion.

Another phlebotomist came over, and she felt around, trying a heating pad to coax out her veins.  After a minute or two, she also asked if she could involve another phlebotomist.

A third woman came over and found a good vein.  She was about to use a larger needle when I commented that a butterfly would work better.  Without missing a beat, she popped off the longer needle, snapped on the butterfly, and slid in the needle.  The actual taking of the blood took about 30 painless seconds.  The ChickieNob was so relieved.  I love collaboration and the fact that each woman drew in knowledge from another woman in order to deliver the best experience to the patient.  Imagine if all people operated in that manner, with the focus being on the goal instead of on ego…

Now if only I could have releasing the test results go as smoothly.  That, unfortunately, is always a case of knocking my head against the wall for a week.

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Stop procrastinating.  Go make your backups.  Don’t have regrets.

Seriously.  Stop what you’re doing for a moment.  It will take you fifteen minutes, tops.  But you will have peace of mind for days and days.  It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Surviving Failure, Redefining Success” (My Path to Mommyhood)

Okay, now my choices this week.

My Perfect Breakdown has a post about an exchange that came about because she’s open about how hard it was to build their family.  She talks about the importance of continuing to be an advocate: “Once you’ve been through struggles to have children, the impacts last forever. And, I cannot not just pretend it never happened, even if I wanted to. Instead, I must continue to raise a voice.”  It’s a great reminder of connections that can be made when you tell your story.

HopefullyMyLinesNow has a post about tempering her excitement now that she’s pregnant.  She outlines what she’s doing with a series of great scenarios.  It is seriously the most helpful read to pass along to anyone who tells you that you should be out celebrating when you’re feeling a little raw and cautious.  She’s happy and hopeful, but she also knows that she needs to do what she needs to do to protect her heart.

Lastly, Empty Arms, Broken Heart has a bittersweet exchange with her daughter.  It’s about sitting with someone else’s wish, and how it affects your own heart.  To say any more than that would ruin the emotional impact of this post, so click over to read it.

The roundup to the Roundup: This is what collaboration looks like.  Your weekly backup nudge.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between August 17th and 24th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.