BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Touching the Copy Machine

Today I went to the hospital for some bloodwork. When I got there at 8am, there was a line of people waiting to register. As I got to the front the lady asked if I had my paperwork and I said no, my doctor was going to send it over (Dr. Val's office is like 45 minutes from my house but she also operates out of a hospital that is like 5 minutes from my work-so thankful for this although when IVF time rolls around, I know I won't be able to use this hospital but for the time being, I am grateful). So I go sit down then about 5 minutes later she calls me back up, reads my paperwork and asks if I'd been fasting. I commented, "Oh yes...that's why I'm so crabby this morning." Ha ha...okay, she didn't think it was so funny.

I don't think I've mentioned this but during the start of our IF journey, I got into it with my girl doctor's office for broken HIPAA laws and mass confusion (my SIL went to the same doctor and they could NEVER keep us straight which there's seriously like 3 women with our last name in the entire county-how hard is it PLUS I got billed for a $1,900 surgery I didn't have plus I fear that my SIL may know information about our IF journey because of this mix-up). After numerous, pointless arguments with staff at Dr. L's office, I finally "broke up" with her, wrote a letter to her office, the president of the hospital she operates out of and to the Better Business Bureau (of course, nothing has happened but I feel like I did what I needed to do to hopefully stop this from happening to other women and my insurance company got the check back for the $1,900 surgery they paid very quickly after that). People can learn better business practices
while receiving a business degree online.

Okay, so the point of that tangent, as I was waiting for the lady to type in my insurance info, who do I see walking in the lobby? DR. L!!! OMG!!! This is NOT the confrontation I want at 8am on a Tuesday morning on an empty stomach. I quickly turn my back to her, pulling my hair to the side of my face right as the receptionist asks, "How do you spell your last name?" I quietly start to whisper the spelling to which she replies, "I can't hear you!" I turn around and see Dr. L getting in the elevator-whew! Crisis averted.

I get taken back to the lab right away and the lady gets on the phone to order the labels for the multiple viles of blood she's about to take. I couldn't really understand her but apparently we were waiting on something, which I later saw was a list of labels the size of legal paper. She asked if she could get the next patient and I said, no that's fine so she pulls the curtain, however, I'm sitting next to the door so the new patient walks right past me, smiles and says hello. I did found out that our birthdays are only three days apart, I wanted to tell him this but I felt it would be an invasion of privacy since that piece of cloth was separating us. He finished up, walked out and told me good luck before he left.

As he left, she opened the curtain and started doing things WITH HER GLOVES ON!!! She was throwing away stuff, putting labels on the viles, TOUCHING THE COPY MACHINE!?! Doesn't this defeat the purpose of wearing the gloves??? I don't know, maybe I'm a little too OCD or something.

Anyways, we finally get to draw some blood in which she stuck me and couldn't find a vein. I almost started crying because this was just the kind of last few days I had...ugh! So then rather than try the other arm...she moves from my elbow crease (sorry don't know the technical name) to the right so she's drawing blood from almost my forearm!!! Then she put on the tape so tight when I went to use my phone, I couldn't bend my arm. Anyways, it was quite the experience...whew! I'm exhausted now.

4 comments:

Conceptionally Challenged said...

I'm glad you "missed" Dr. L. That would have been an awkward meeting.

On the gloves -- here they put up posters last year, saying that you need to take them off as soon as you leave the lab. Indicating that going everywhere with them and potentially cross-contaminating whatever is not unheard of...

Anonymous said...

OMG that's craziness!!! =( My worst blood draw the girl ended up getting a vein on the top of my hand! This was after 20 min diggin in my arm and me almost passing out. She had to give me a snapple from her fridge so I wouldn't die. I was soooo about to cry!!!

Adie said...

This is horrible. I actually would have made her change her freaking gloves - ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

So sorry you had to deal with this.

Wishing 4 One said...

Um this sounds like you could have been here in Cairo, LOL seriously OMG girl! You are so not OCD she should NOT have been touching things with her gloves, man! Anyway glad you got through it and averted the dreaded doctor L too. xoxo