Lab Work

This morning, I went to get lab tests done for my annual physical. After I checked in, I stood in a small waiting room where all of the available chairs were occupied by other patients. One lady was speaking in Spanish to her mother the whole time that I was there.

When it was my turn, the tech gave me a plastic cup and directed me to a bathroom. The cup had a lid that I had to unscrew before making my contribution, but there were no flat surfaces in the bathroom where I could set the lid down. I considered for about three seconds trying to hold both the lid and the cup in one hand while hanging on to Mr. Johnson with the other, but that was clearly not practical.

My eventual solution - no, not that solution - was to put a couple of paper towels down on the floor and set the lid top down on those.

My instructions were to leave the cup in a small metal cabinet. When I opened the cabinet, two other samples were already in there. Another gentleman went into the bathroom right after I did. I had to hope that some drug abuser wouldn’t steal my sample.

The tech then directed me to a chair for bloodwork. She had just emerged from behind a curtain where she had attempted to a PCR Covid test to the lady who had been talking on the phone in the waiting room. The tech had to give up in frustration, because the lady kept pulling away from the swab. Hopefully, I won’t have to get lab work done again until this pandemic is over.