Medical care is greatly improved by always keeping in mind Rule #1: make sure you’re in the right room.
Back to the clinic grind this week: Monday two units of red cells (I don’t know, maybe I’m getting tired of them), Tuesday a CT scan, and Wednesday a series of appointments: EKG, blood draw, bone marrow biopsy, meet with nurse. I got to SCCA a little late (stayed too long at a meeting at work) and rushed to the second floor (of six) where I expected the EKG to happen. After I checked in I was waiting rather a long time, but I figured that the schedule was messed up due to my being late and missing my slot. Finally after 45 minutes I asked what the deal was. The nice folks at the counter said “oh no, EKGs are on the fourth floor!” They thought I had just checked in way early for my biopsy.
I had already discovered that SCCA was having a Slow Elevator Day. One of the units out of order? Just too crowded? Who knows, but every elevator trip (and they don’t want patients taking the stairs) took forever. At that point I was way late for my EKG. Could they still do it? Did I need to have it before the other stuff? Does anyone know? I’ll check, sir, and someone will be out to see you in a few minutes. Sigh. It was now lunchtime and my hopes of getting something to eat before the biopsy were fading. At long last the EKG happens, mercifully quick but involving a large number of sticky patches that all have to be ripped off most painfully. Maybe that’s the test.
Back to the Moribund Elevators to go down to blood draw on the first floor. This time there were eight tubes to be filled to cover all the tests. And they wonder why I’m anemic. Also I gave a urine sample. All this was, I think, the exit interview for the clinical trial that I had just fallen out of.
Back to the second floor for the biopsy, only an hour or so late. Fortunately they were ready to go quickly. The people who do these procedures appreciate that patients might be a little nervous about having a needle inserted into their hip bone to draw out some marrow (really?) so they create a very nice relaxing environment. Also they have good drugs. Fentanyl, which I’d just like to point out is more potent than morphine, does an excellent job of taking the edge off the needle-induced jitters. The procedure itself took only a few seconds and as far as I know it wasn’t painful.
Then the nurse meet, which revealed that my blood numbers are still quite low across the board, though perhaps there was a little uptick in the hematocrit. I won’t get the biopsy results, or I guess the CT results either, until next week. Back to the elevators, still slow, and thus ended another day at the clinic, only about an hour longer than expected, which was pretty good.