Monthly Archives: June 2013

Sometimes, I just hate getting blood drawn.

June 5, 2013 – 10:37 am

Excuse me while I vent a little…

I had to get blood drawn today for the clinical trial I’m participating in. Instead of going all the way down to Virginia to get it done, the team there sent me a lab slip so I could get the work done here. Fine so far, right?

So I go into the local corporate-owned lab processing place (are there any mom and pop lab processing places?) and gave them the lab slip that had been scanned and e-mailed to me. In the office there was me and three lab technicians. That’s where the trouble started.

“This says ‘Virginia’ on it… I don’t know if we can do that here”. Well, yes, you can. You’re a multi-state organization, which is why they chose you to do the work (I live in Maryland, for those who don’t know).

“This doesn’t have your name on it, just your initials… I don’t think we can do this without your name on it.” They’re trying to keep the study participant information as private as possible, I think, and I just let you look at my driver’s license, and by the way, the form says “patient’s initials” where my initials are.

“Okay, we just need your name, date of birth, your phone number, and your address.” Really? Do the words “Patient Privacy” mean anything to you? Actually, that’s only what I was thinking, it’s not what I said. I eventually gave it to them to keep the process-at-a-snail’s-pace moving.

What I said, eventually, was: “Look, I’m not going to come in here out of the blue with a forged lab slip because I like going around and getting poked in the arm all the time. No one would do that.”

Ten minutes later, the blood was drawn and I was on my way. After answering questions like “did we get your date of birth?” (Yes) and “This goes to Johns Hopkins, right?” (No, University of Virginia). Start to finish the process took about 50 minutes. And I was the only patient in the place.

I was a retail manager in a previous life, and I know this is a different setting, but let me put it this way: I never believed in the notion that “The customer is always right”. My feeling was, the customer should never be made to feel that it’s their fault if they’re wrong. If I hand you a piece of paper that doesn’t look like every other piece of paper you receive (even though it does have your company’s logo at the top), let’s work together so I can ease your fears and you can ease mine.

If we had worked together, the whole episode would have taken less time, and you and I probably would have had smiles on our faces at the end of the process. If you even care about that kind of thing. Which, maybe, you don’t.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Random Glucose | Tagged , , | Comments (3)

Hard decisions.

June 3, 2013 – 9:42 am

You may have read in the last few months (because I’ve been kind of bragging about it) about a triathlon that’s on my schedule in just a couple of weeks. I’ve completed two triathlons before, both two years ago, and I’ve been excited about the idea to add another one to my list.

But it’s not going to happen. Over the weekend, I made a heartfelt decision to cancel my participation in the event this year.

Making this decision, and writing about it right now, is pretty emotional for me. I’m not a quitter. But I feel like a quitter, and thinking about it that way is particularly galling. I suppose I could just go out there, try my best, and somehow get myself through the event. But finishing like a weakling is not my style. And I think it would take everything I have to finish this time. If I could finish.

In reality, there are a number of reasons why I’m crossing this off my list. Only part of it is that I’m not in the kind of shape I would like to be in to swim, bike, and run over two hours. Part of why I’m not in the best of shape is because of how often I was sick over the first four months of the year. It was May before I could get on a steady schedule that would keep me getting stronger up to this point.

Being busier is a reason too, but not a good one. I’m still getting used to being busier than I have in both my work and personal lives in the last ten years. That’s a good thing for me. Being involved is good. But it also means that I have less time to hit the gym, or the road.

But ultimately, it comes down to the most important factor. When you’re involved in a relationship with someone, and you commit your lives to each other, you’re saying (among other things) that when you really need me, I’m going to be there for you. I got out and rode my bike for over an hour on Saturday morning, then came home to help The Great Spousal Unit clear away debris from two large tree limbs that had fallen in our yard. It smashed a lattice wall we had constructed some years ago, and took out a bench we had sitting there too. The cleanup required us to do about five hours of work in the hot sun before making a trip to the county dump to get rid of the lattice, the bench, and a couple of other things that needed to go.

If I had finished my ride and then run for about an hour, like I had planned, it would have meant that Maureen would have been left clearing away that debris all by herself. Because by the end of that ride and run, I would have been useless for the rest of the day. And the thing is, I’ve been doing that kind of thing to her a lot this Spring. Traveling to conferences and leaving her at home. Letting her do the yard work while I went to the gym. Granted, you’re going to do some of that when you’re busy, and when you’re training for an event that requires more than just a little stretch beforehand. But I knew that it was getting to be too much for her. I also heard her the hundred times when she suggested that I should call off the triathlon this year. Partly that was out of worry for my welfare, I think; and partly that was out of concern that she wasn’t getting enough help (let alone enough attention).

So while there are probably about a dozen reasons for me to call off this event, my spouse of almost twenty years is the one that tipped the scale. If I feel better in a couple of weeks (I gave blood again on Friday morning and Saturday’s work was especially tiring), I may make a last minute decision to participate. But right now, I’ve got to come to grips with being mad as hell at myself today, then get back to my reality tomorrow. Sometimes you do things you don’t want to because it’s right for someone important, and often that someone important isn’t even you.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Exercise | Tagged , , | Comments (7)