wish me luck....
I'm about to give notice at the c.s. job I hate. I typically can make enough as a med lab tech to get through summer. I'll be appying for early social security this year to replace that income. Wasn't my original plan, but life is what happens...I've been a little worried about doing it, worried I didn't have enough money to get through tax season, pay for next year's hay for the horses, and keep myself going. And then a minor miracle happened.
There are a couple lab techs older than I am who really should be retiring. Well, as luck would have it, I was at the urgent care center on Wednesday when the supervisor took a call from one of them. As of immediately, she is out on worker's comp until she is medically approved to return to work. Not sure why, but everybody guesses it'd due to chemical sensitivities -- none of the gloves is working for her and apparently she's been having problems with her hands. If it is chemical sensitivities, I can't imagine how she'll be able to work in the lab. They have 3 different types of gloves -- all latex and rubber-plant-free. Unpowdered. Powdered purple bought just for her. Powdered blue also bought just for her.
I don't wish her ill, but the fact is she needs to find other work or retire. Aside from the health issues, she's a major disaster in the lab. Examples: she took apart the wright-giemsa stainer to "fix" it. It never worked again, and now we have to do manual stains. she mixed up 2 reagents on the multi-million dollar chemistry analyzer. 1 has a b&w label, the other is fire engine red&w, so how she confused them is beyond me. Fortunately she didn't destroy the analyzer (certain mixups could have). But the night tech ended up spending literally hours in the middle of the night on the phone with Roche service and having to flush and re-flush the system (25 times? 50 times?), and then calibrate and qc every reagent on it, before it was useable again.
So anyway, in the meantime, when I overheard the call I jumped right in and covered a 12 hour shift for her without notice yesterday and am doing another one tomorrow. It's made me temporarily a hero to the same lab director who hated my existence 4 years ago 
Here's hoping this gives me enough work to keep me going!
= new reply since forum marked as read
You've rescued them, and they have rescued you!
Yay!
I know how much you have hated that job. I am sure it will all work out for you.
Take advantage of that open door.
You rock, ... now show them what you got, cause you've got this.
I'm so very happy for you! 
