I'm losing the ability to count down properly. I tried to decide if I should count the number of sleeps until surgery then the number of have to get ups before surgery, perhaps the number of meals prior, or .. the list keeps on keepin on. It is currently Friday evening, May 30th at 8:45pm and I'm about to go to sleep. I will repeat this going to sleep behavior 11 times. So to make it easier on my brain - 11 units of measurement to surgery!
Yesterday I had the blood taken. Surprisingly it was only 3 vials - but I did not have a pleasant experience there. Apart from the experience, the lack of coffee/caffeine was enough to give me a really bad headache the entire day. Not a migraine thankfully, but very close to it. I pretty much spent all day napping and taking lots of tylenol. So just to document my travels I'm going to describe in wonderful living Leslie detail about my experience.
Knowing that I had to fast for the metabolic panel I ate my last snack at 9p.m. Usually I eat my first meal when I wake up at 2:12a.m. with coffee #1 and then drive to work with coffee #2 have a snack at 6a.m. with Diet Coke and eat my 2nd meal at 9:00am with more coffee or Diet coke. Suffice it to say that my routine was broken. The food part was a non-issue. The caffeine/drink part was a huge issue. Wanting to miss the 7 a.m. crowd at the lab required this strategy.
I arrived at LabCorp around 8:45a.m. with 8 people waiting to either pee, have blood drained or both. One person (patient) was at the registration desk and was holding the "SIGN IN" clipboard. In order not to waste time, I took the "PATIENT INFO" clipboard and began to fill that out. The lady behind the stupid hole in the wall like window (one of 2 - who I will call Yeller and Reacher) who was talking to the person with the sign in clipboard YELLED at me that I had to sign in BEFORE filling out the info sheet. The other person STILL had the other clipboard. So I asked, (very nicely) if I would have to fill out both? Yes. I would. But YOU HAVE TO SIGN IN FIRST. I said, Well since that one is being used why can't I fill this one out and then we can switch - and she said - BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO SIGN IN FIRST. Neither clipboard knew if I had signed the other. Seriously now, there are 2 clipboards, one to sign in and one to fill out the form you hand in when your name is called off the sign in list. I broke some rule in taking the sheet and was directed to GO SIT DOWN and she will call me to come back when the SIGN IN clipboard is on the counter. So I fill out the form, take it off the clipboard and about 20 seconds later she calls me over to fill out the sign in sheet. I put the INFO clipboard down on the counter and she SNATCHES it up thinking that I left my filled out form on it. So she says (in an almost smiley sing song voice) Where is the form? Did you throw it out? (lol!!!) I showed her it was in my not so stupid hands. I mean c'mon. She directs me to go sit down again.
Thirty minutes later, the other lady behind the hole in the wall calls me. They're sharing this hole in the wall, but there's really only enough room for one of them to be in front of it - and the lady I was now dealing with was off to my right and had to reach over to get things from the window. I was worried that her reaching was going to be catastrophic because she looked as though she might fall of her rolling chair and I had visons of Yeller lady kicking her over for doing something in the wrong order. So I have to give her a whole handful of things and not a millisecond after I handed to her Yeller told me to go back and sit down. I said very loud, "Yes M'am. Whatever you say M'am'" And just about at the same time I sat down (maybe a real second now) Reacher was calling me back to give me back my cards. Reacher told me to go over to the first curtain where they take blood. So I walk over there.....
And of course Yeller sent someone else there! I have to say that although she was yelling I don't think she was intentionally trying to be a bitch. So I went right outside the first curtain and sat on a bench. Reacher now comes over to take my blood and realizes that Yeller sent another patient there. So I waited another minute. It was one of those experiences...
Scheduled the EKG for Tuesday coming. Will get chest xray also. Made some progress organizing things, but still have a ways to go. It's really coming up..
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