Like a Kafka story in miniature.
Today I went to the doctor, and she told me to get a blood test. The last time I went to get a blood test I waited in line for forty-five minutes and then was told I was in the wrong place, and I never got it. So I was not sanguine (so to speak) about my prospects this time; but the doctor swore it would be easy and sent me across the street.
I went across the street and waited in line for twenty minutes. Then I went in and had my blood taken. (On a side note, I'm okay with blood, I'm okay with needles, it hardly hurts at all, but having a needle thrust into one's arm suddenly is really disconcerting.) Then the technician wanted a label for my blood, so she sent me to the registration desk.
At the registration desk the nice lady looked for me on the computer and discovered that I'm a student. (Surprise!) So she said, you're in the wrong place. You have to go next door and have your blood taken there.
I asked if I couldn't just go get my blood and take it over there. No, no I couldn't. It can't be done. Heaven forbid I should carry my own blood anywhere. I'm surprised they let me out on the street, considering that I am full of my own blood held in a rather easily punctured container. It's a health hazard, human blood is.
So I nerved myself for another blood extraction and went to the place indicated by the nice lady at the registration desk. They looked at my paperwork and refused it, because it was Not the Right Form. The health services of my university do NOT use the university's own world-famous hospital services; they farm all of that out to a private company, and this private company has its own bureaucratic maze to run before they will take blood, or paperwork, or anything.
So I went to ask my doctor about paperwork. She had never heard of the paperwork required, and accompanied me first to the lab where I had had my blood drawn, then to the registration desk, to verify what I had already told her--that they wanted a different form, and her form was no good, because I was (and still am) a student.
So she sent me away with the promise to mail me paperwork that someone, somewhere, may someday accept, so they can stick a needle in my arm and tell me if my thyroid is working.
Sure hope it doesn't give out in the meantime.
I went across the street and waited in line for twenty minutes. Then I went in and had my blood taken. (On a side note, I'm okay with blood, I'm okay with needles, it hardly hurts at all, but having a needle thrust into one's arm suddenly is really disconcerting.) Then the technician wanted a label for my blood, so she sent me to the registration desk.
At the registration desk the nice lady looked for me on the computer and discovered that I'm a student. (Surprise!) So she said, you're in the wrong place. You have to go next door and have your blood taken there.
I asked if I couldn't just go get my blood and take it over there. No, no I couldn't. It can't be done. Heaven forbid I should carry my own blood anywhere. I'm surprised they let me out on the street, considering that I am full of my own blood held in a rather easily punctured container. It's a health hazard, human blood is.
So I nerved myself for another blood extraction and went to the place indicated by the nice lady at the registration desk. They looked at my paperwork and refused it, because it was Not the Right Form. The health services of my university do NOT use the university's own world-famous hospital services; they farm all of that out to a private company, and this private company has its own bureaucratic maze to run before they will take blood, or paperwork, or anything.
So I went to ask my doctor about paperwork. She had never heard of the paperwork required, and accompanied me first to the lab where I had had my blood drawn, then to the registration desk, to verify what I had already told her--that they wanted a different form, and her form was no good, because I was (and still am) a student.
So she sent me away with the promise to mail me paperwork that someone, somewhere, may someday accept, so they can stick a needle in my arm and tell me if my thyroid is working.
Sure hope it doesn't give out in the meantime.
Posted by sealionii on
Wednesday March 21, 2007 at 8:53pm
I had eight tubes of blood drawn two days ago, but I sat in one place the whole time. Lucky me! The state of my thyroid is also being probed.