15 vials of blood and a 3 hour wait

December 16, 2005

I had some blood tests a couple months ago, and my physician said there were indications of possible liver problems. So he referred me to a specialist, I had my appointment there yesterday. Easily the worst doctor’s visit in my life.

First off, I was there three hours. Arrived just after 2 p.m. and spent the next fifteen minutes filling out forms. I don’t understand why they can’t transmit my records electronically from my PCP to the specialist.

So anyway, I then waited in the sitting room until 3:30 before they ushered me into the examination area. They did the usual stuff–weighed me (I’ve lost a couple pounds, which is cool) and took my blood pressure. Then showed me into an exam room, where I waited some more.

Just before 4 p.m. the physician’s assitant came in and walked me thru what they’d found in the previous tests. And then told me I would have to go thru a battery of additional tests, including a sonogram next week (to check the liver and spleen) and a whole bunch of additional blood test. Plus I don’t even get to see an actual doctor on this first visit, it won’t be until the test results come back in January that I will see him.

These additional blood tests–they’re looking for any signs of problems in the liver. Fifteen separate tests, and of course each requires its own blood sample. So the phsician’s assistant shows me to the scheduling desk where they schedule my sonogram, and then send me back to a separate waiting area for the phlebotomist.

By now it’s around 4:30, the main waiting room and the phlebotomist waiting room are still pretty full. The phlebotomist is a young woman wearing a pair of those floppy felt reindeer antlers on her head. With jingle bells on the ends. Very annoying.

She’s got the fifteen vials lined up, and I’ve given blood before so I know I can bleed out more than enough to fill those vials. But apparently my blood was feeling rather coy, it kept clotting up. She would get four or five vials filled before the flow would stop, then she’d try moving the needle around in my arm before giving up and going to a new injection site to start over. Took three separate pokes before we had filled all the vials.

I don’t get out of the office until just after 5 p.m. To top it all off, I felt a little light-headed. Not sure why, the fifteen vials isn’t really that much blood. They said not even a third of what you’d give in a regular blood donation.