I got home from work yesterday and Rich filled me in on the Hepatitis C test.
It was difficult to hide my enjoyment. Not that I was pleased by what he had endured, just extremely happy that for once I was not the common denominator.
It went like this….
Rich has learned the hard way that such an encounter warrants a pre-flight phone call. And guess what. The lab, which is a satellite of the medical center and uses the same computer system (they’re just not connected to each other apparently) did NOT have an order for his blood work. So Rich called the main scheduling department and they said they sent it. He called the lab back. “No, they didn’t” Another phone call, “Yes we did.” Rich asked them to send it again. Rich makes another six phone calls back and forth to each of them and in between each phone call—the lab gets the order but it’s not filled out right, then the lab gets the order but it’s not signed, then they get a signed order but they can’t read the signature. Like they want to be the first on the planet to be able to READ a doctor’s signature.
By the end of this charade Rich is too exhausted to go anywhere and takes a nap and I get home from work. Proof once again that Rich is far more patient than I am.. If it were me, I would have done nothing, and if I got another phone call requesting I get a Hep C blood test, (after having spent two months in their hospital) I would have said, “Yes, ma’am, I went and got that test”, my voice dripping with honey and innocence and let them scramble in search of the non-existent. That’s just good, clean fun.
Didn’t the Marx Brothers make a movie about running a hospital? One more situation that is too much like a bad sitcom where the parents can’t stand each other and have resorted to communicating through the kids.
I suggested he have the hospital send the order to visiting nurse and have her draw the blood from his PICC line this week when she comes to change the dressing. Let Visiting Nurse join the party.
When we look back on this, after he beats the cancer, I think Rich should do a commercial for this medical center. At the end of the commercial on how they healed him of cancer he can smile into the camera and say “AND, they turned the process into such an ordeal that I often forgot about the cancer!” Big, healthy smile. Fade to black.
