PKU test night

Thursday means weekly test night. Here's the tools from upper right, counterclockwise: A sterile pad to stop bleeding once the sample is collected, the 'Guthrie Card' that is used to collect the sample and send it to the lab, with pre-addressed envelope, the 'tenderfoot' cutter which cuts a nice and clean slice in Owen's foot, the alcohol swab to get everything clean and ready, and a little button band-aid to seal everything up afterward.

It all starts with the tenderfoot slicing a very tiny hole in Owen's foot. It's not as small as a lancet that would be used for diabetes, as we need quite a bit more blood than what those tests call for, but it is a fairly small cut altogether. Nothing close to what a steak knife would do, even if used cautiously.

Collecting the sample takes two hands, so there aren't really any action shots. So, here's the directly after action shot. Owen doesn't cry during these tests anymore. He fusses some, but no crying. I think it's sometimes more painful to not see Mom than it is to have a little cut on the foot.

And, here's a card all filled up and ready to send. Actually, this is one of the neater jobs that's been done so far. Owen's feet just like to kick, so it's sometimes a bit of a moving target to get this all in. For scale, that circle is about the same size as a dime, and the paper is very thick.

So, 7 days till the next one, and this time, we use the right foot.