Outpatient Blood Draw at Virginia Hospital Center

It’s been a long six weeks. We have been dealing with non threatening but very annoying health care issues. It’s been a lot of doctor visits, pharmacy fills, and testing but with no final diagnosis yet. A lot of things have been ruled out. But my husband has a personality that needs to know or he simply won’t rest - creating many sleepless nights. So now he needs to have an ultrasound - scheduled for this afternoon, and more blood work drawn this morning. He had a video visit with the doctor last night. Since there was a staffing issue at the clinic that is right across the street from where we live, we needed to go to the hospital for the lab draw. Thanks to the patient portal, we were able to schedule it on line and sign all the paperwork before we arrived. The hardest part was finding parking. I wanted to avoid the parking structure, so we found a space on the perimeter and used the park mobile app and scheduled an hour. Navigating the hospital is always interesting since we haven’t been there except for outpatient GI tests two weeks ago. Once in the lab area it was quite simple and well organized. If we ever need to go back we will at least know what we are doing. Since we haven’t really needed this much health care it’s also been an exercise trying to figure out what insurance covers. We are not looking forward to the bills that are piling up. All of the results have already been sent through the patient portal and luckily they look just fine. Hopefully things will be the same this afternoon. And for the first time my husband is hungry again - of course on the day he has to stay “nothing by mouth” until after the ultrasound. I don’t know what he will do if everything is negative. It’s been a very anxious time for both of us so we will deal with that when the time comes. 

Convenient Doctor Office

It couldn’t be any more convenient. In spite of that I wasn’t looking forward to going to the doctor office to have routine blood work drawn. I had a virtual visit with the doctor two weeks ago to get on record there. When we moved to northern Virginia last year from Capitol Hill, we needed to change doctors. We selected doctors primarily based on location, and it is right across the street from our condo building. You literally go out the door and you are there. The only difference now is all the COVID precautions one needs to take. And, my husband and I always went together for all of these things. So it was very odd to go alone. So I put my N95 mask on, one glove, and walked down the stairs. I waved to my husband who was on the balcony watching me pass by. The building was pretty empty and the elevator was clearly marked for two people only. Before I got in to the office, the nurse took my temp and verified my information. They were extremely careful about keeping social distancing and spacing out patients in between lab draws. I could hear the tech spraying down the room before I entered. It didn’t take very long and I was home. Even with hand sanitizer and minimum contact I still feel like I am covered in cooties - especially since I had to leave a urine sample in the bathroom. I also forgot to pick up the prescriptions for annual radiology tests. I think I’ll call and ask them to mail them to me. I am not in any hurry to get anything done anyway. As for the blood work? It is supposed to be available in three business days. There is usually a problem with cholesterol in spite of my best efforts with diet and exercise. I am cursed with high blood pressure and bad cardiac genes - which makes me all the more wary of having contact with anyone. So now I’ll be worried about cooties and lab test results. I wish I had my husband’s personality - easy go lucky and calm - regardless of the circumstances.