Trying to be an adult...
Apr. 14th, 2026 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickRegarding the blood work mulligan, I got up today early and skipped breakfast and delayed coffee so that I could get that done on the way into work. I did metal detector readiness in my truck and went in. Lookit me getting shit done, just like a real person!
Because I was a dumb dumb, I just went back to the lab, but that's apparently not how you do blood work. I did blood work a week ago and I do not remember doing the outpatient check in thing, but maybe I'm not remembering well.
I hate not knowing what I am supposed to do or how to navigate.
Anyway, to get blood work done, you get a number and do outpatient registration. So I went back to outpatient registration and took a number and waited the two minutes for the automated number thingie to illuminate with my number and then went over to the outpatient registration.
The lady at the outpatient registration desk was "Sorry? No blood work orders here. Who's your doctor again?"
Hunh. I had a phone conversation with my doctor's office last Wednesday in which they told me to go get the original blood work done plus some more targeted blood work for further information on the concerning thyroid bullshit. The person on the phone with my doctor's office said that she would have the orders called into the lab and that I could just show up at the hospital and get it done.
So, trying my best to be a grown-up despite this bump in the road (no breakfast, no coffee, no belt, no phone holster, no wallet, no keys, all my shit's all wrong all over the place), I asked the outpatient registration lady if she could call the doctor's office. She tried. The doctor's office does not open until 8:30. It was 7:40, and I wasn't going to sit around for forty fucking minutes to try and get some resolution going on.
I left. I went to work and when it got to be 8:30 I called the doctor office. I explained that I went in to do the allegedly-ordered blood work and that the lady at outpatient registration could not find any ordered blood work of any kind. The lady on the phone at the doctor's office said that was very strange and that the order had indeed been submitted.
I sighed. I don't have a ton of adulting at hand when it's been a no-breakfast, shitty coffee with whole milk kind of morning. I am not at my best. I mean, I'm Doing The Thing, but it's not fun for me or anyone else around me. (But, which_chick, you could just go get a bite to eat, right? That'd help the blood sugar levels, put you in a slightly better mood, right? I'm sorry. Was there a part of the avoid highly-processed foods, anything fried, all animal fats, eat more whole grains directives that you didn't understand? There is no commercially available "breakfast burrito" or "breakfast sandwich" on the planet that isn't jacked chock-full of animal fats and highly-processed foods. Fuck that noise. I am not eating sticky plastic-y tasting shit that I don't like that is also bad for me. Besides, the rest of the world deserves to suffer for fucking up my morning.)
I asked if they could please resubmit the order for blood work so that I could try again tomorrow to get this done. The lady on the phone said that she would do that.
I didn't check to make sure that the CORRECT sort of blood work order got submitted. I probably should have asked. The "Hey, the doc is worried about a thyroid thing, so it's probably not just a do-over of the existing blood work, can you check to see if she ordered some thyroid-specific stuff too?" question that I should have asked to be sure that the office person did the right things and didn't just fucking copypasta the prior shotgun bloodwork order ... did not get asked. Damn it.
I did what I could. That's all any of us can do. *sigh*
I wonder if the portal thingie shows ordered tests? (checking) Fucking UPMC has like three different iterations of Patient Portal (because it keeps eating other hospital systems) and I had to hunt around to find the correct one.
No. The patient portal does not disclose ordered tests. Y'know, that'd be a Helpful Thing for the fucking patient portal to disclose.
Dropping the ball, here, patient portal.
Because I was a dumb dumb, I just went back to the lab, but that's apparently not how you do blood work. I did blood work a week ago and I do not remember doing the outpatient check in thing, but maybe I'm not remembering well.
I hate not knowing what I am supposed to do or how to navigate.
Anyway, to get blood work done, you get a number and do outpatient registration. So I went back to outpatient registration and took a number and waited the two minutes for the automated number thingie to illuminate with my number and then went over to the outpatient registration.
The lady at the outpatient registration desk was "Sorry? No blood work orders here. Who's your doctor again?"
Hunh. I had a phone conversation with my doctor's office last Wednesday in which they told me to go get the original blood work done plus some more targeted blood work for further information on the concerning thyroid bullshit. The person on the phone with my doctor's office said that she would have the orders called into the lab and that I could just show up at the hospital and get it done.
So, trying my best to be a grown-up despite this bump in the road (no breakfast, no coffee, no belt, no phone holster, no wallet, no keys, all my shit's all wrong all over the place), I asked the outpatient registration lady if she could call the doctor's office. She tried. The doctor's office does not open until 8:30. It was 7:40, and I wasn't going to sit around for forty fucking minutes to try and get some resolution going on.
I left. I went to work and when it got to be 8:30 I called the doctor office. I explained that I went in to do the allegedly-ordered blood work and that the lady at outpatient registration could not find any ordered blood work of any kind. The lady on the phone at the doctor's office said that was very strange and that the order had indeed been submitted.
I sighed. I don't have a ton of adulting at hand when it's been a no-breakfast, shitty coffee with whole milk kind of morning. I am not at my best. I mean, I'm Doing The Thing, but it's not fun for me or anyone else around me. (But, which_chick, you could just go get a bite to eat, right? That'd help the blood sugar levels, put you in a slightly better mood, right? I'm sorry. Was there a part of the avoid highly-processed foods, anything fried, all animal fats, eat more whole grains directives that you didn't understand? There is no commercially available "breakfast burrito" or "breakfast sandwich" on the planet that isn't jacked chock-full of animal fats and highly-processed foods. Fuck that noise. I am not eating sticky plastic-y tasting shit that I don't like that is also bad for me. Besides, the rest of the world deserves to suffer for fucking up my morning.)
I asked if they could please resubmit the order for blood work so that I could try again tomorrow to get this done. The lady on the phone said that she would do that.
I didn't check to make sure that the CORRECT sort of blood work order got submitted. I probably should have asked. The "Hey, the doc is worried about a thyroid thing, so it's probably not just a do-over of the existing blood work, can you check to see if she ordered some thyroid-specific stuff too?" question that I should have asked to be sure that the office person did the right things and didn't just fucking copypasta the prior shotgun bloodwork order ... did not get asked. Damn it.
I did what I could. That's all any of us can do. *sigh*
I wonder if the portal thingie shows ordered tests? (checking) Fucking UPMC has like three different iterations of Patient Portal (because it keeps eating other hospital systems) and I had to hunt around to find the correct one.
No. The patient portal does not disclose ordered tests. Y'know, that'd be a Helpful Thing for the fucking patient portal to disclose.
Dropping the ball, here, patient portal.
