How A Ping Pong Ball Feels

Today I was supposed to go to the hospital lab for a ProTime (a test to check how long it takes for your blood to clot measuring the effectiveness of the blood thinner). Let me start out by saying that what happened was my fault for not checking to see where I was supposed to go first.

First we went to the hospital lab. They didn't have any lab orders for me so they sent me down to admitting. We stopped by a check-in desk where they looked for any paperwork for me and came up with a lab order and sent me back to the lab with the paperwork in hand. The lab then realized I had not been registered in the hospital computer yet so first they had me fill out a lengthy registration form. After I finished that they told me I would have to go down to registration anyhow. This is where I should have started. They couldn't use the registration form I filled out at the lab so I had to go through all of that over again.

I must have caused enough confusion and concern that the guy from the EP department came down I think to see if I was going to need some "special assistance". At that point most everything was straightened out so I pretended to know what I was doing - he didn't seem to buy it.

Now back to the lab with all the proper paperwork in hand and properly registered. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel - then it went out... "Hello, my name is (I can't remember). I am an Intern here. Is it okay if I draw your blood today?". I think I mentioned in my initial post that I am not a needle guy so what would you say if asked this question? Should I tell the truth? The best answer I could muster was "I hope so". She took this as a yes and several nervous minutes later successfully poked a vein in my right arm (Praise the Lord!). I hope she gets a good grade for dealing with needle-phobes like me.

We then went up to the EP department to deliver some paperwork from registration. We got to meet some of the people who will be taking care of me and that I have been in contact with by e-mail. They ran through where and what I needed to do on Thursday (consultation with Dr. Natale) and on Friday for the ablation procedure. For some reason they covered this 3 or 4 times like they thought I might show up at the wrong place or something. Now why would they think that?

All in all I think we were bouncing around at the hospital for a couple of hours. The good news is the nurse called me an hour or so later and told me the ProTime test came out in range so everything is still good for the ablation.

Dave