Sucky Day

I decided to get online and write this blog entry now, because my goal is to fall asleep immediately after this and not think about how horrible today was.

It all started when I arrived at the lab to have my 3 hour glucose test. As I posted this morning, I was actually feeling okay. Not horrible. Not great...but not too bad. I arrived, got myself checked in and they sent me back to the room to have my "fasting" sample of blood taken. I sat there for about 20 minutes before they came in to tell me that the blood work orders were not in the system and that I would have to wait until my doctor's office opened to get started on the test.

The woman was, very insistantly, telling me that the orders were never in the system. Not cool. When I called on Monday to make my appointment, I had the person on the other end of the line verify that the doctors orders were in their system to avoid just this problem. I had to take a day off work to do this test, and there was no way that I was doing it again. So, she pissed me off and got an earful about how hungry I was. LOL - poor woman.

As soon as my doctor's office opened, I got on my cell phone and called (because I was listening for them to place the call from the desk, and they didn't). At 8:05, the orders were faxed over and they took my blood for the first time. Then I had to drink another fruit punch flavored sugar drink. Man - it was just awful. I mean, truly fucking terrible. It was twice as strong as the first one that I had during my screening and literally went down like syrup. Gross.

By now, the nausea had come on full force. The wait began. During the first hour, Bailey decided to go crazy. I think all that sugar effected her. She kicked just a strong as I've ever felt. It was entertaining for about 2 minutes...then it annoyed me. I was so freakin' hungry and pissed off. I was sitting in a waiting room with straight back chairs, overhead florescant lighting and LOUD lab staff talking all around me. Plus, they had a lovely flat screen television tuned to "LabCorp TV" that kept looping through the same 10 health-related infomercials. Christ. Just shoot me.

I hung in there. Finally I downloaded a game on my cell phone and played it. I got stuck in the same vein (because mine are not great in one of my arms) four times while I was there.

I left and immediately headed to the hospital. I had a prearranged appointment for my Rogram shot. I stopped at my doctor's office and picked up the paperwork and then walked over to the hospital (they are right next to each other). After checking in, I sat there and waited. Finally, the nurse came in and told me that the blood work paperwork (that showed I was O-negative) had a different last name and a different birthdate. The last name was fine (after all, it was a legal name change), but apparently some idiot had screwed up the data entry when they did my blood work and THAT was a problem. After all, I might not actually have O-negative blood. So, the solution was for them to have to take my blood, send it to the lab, confirm it's negative status and then give me the shot. All of this was going to take another hour and a half.

FUCK.

That was all I could think to say. So, they stuck me again (we're up to five sticks, now), but they used the other arm. I'm actually pretty impressed that she was able to find that vein...and thank god she did. I might have cried if they stuck me in the same place again.

Then I left. I went to Chipolte and ate. Then I went over to Borders and treated myself to a cup of coffee and a piece of Mississippi Mud Cheesecake (I know, I know...but hell, I needed something to make the day good). The nurse was supposed to call me back and tell me the results were back so that I could go back to the hospital and get my shot. She never called, so after an hour and a half, I went back on my own. I parked and walked back into the biggest freakin' nightmare I've ever seen.

Thursday afternoons are "free maternity care" day. The unit was FULL. And at this point, my tolerance level to deal with anything was so low. I just sighed and squeezed myself into a seat between one family that was shouting to each other (not sure why) and another girl who smelled like she hadn't showered in four or five days. I closed my eyes and pictured being far away.

Finally (30 minutes later), the nurse called me in for my shot. The final insult of the day came when she explained that it was a "muscle shot". In other words, it was a HUGE needled that needed to be "jammed" into the muscle of my upper arm. The woman said it would "hurt like hell."

At this point, I was either going to cry or scream. I opted for crying. I looked up at her, my eyes filled with tears and I said, "just do whatever so I can go home." She did her thing. It hurt like hell. I tried not to cry too much.

I gathered myself and my jacket and got back in my car and came home. Thank god today is over.

Come home soon, Kelly. I need a hug.