Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Port Nurses

Woo hoo! My hemoglobin has been hovering in the nines for months, and yesterday it was eleven. No wonder I have been feeling so good! Twelve is the low end of the normal range, so you could say I am almost normal now ;^)

Duke Clinic 1C was jam packed yesterday, probably because of the holiday week. All those Thursday and Friday patients have to be seen at some point, Monday through Wednesday. I sat around for 50 minutes waiting to have my blood drawn. Yikes. Sure, I was reading an Agatha Christie paperback, printed in 1971, that I bought at the Wake County library sale for a buck. The title is something about chimneys. You have to be gentle when you're reading a paperback that is 38 years old.

Turns out that the nurses who draw blood through ports were really backed up -- but the nurses who draw blood by sticking a needle in your arm were less backed up. Lesson learned: in the future, I will tell the desk clerk when I check in that I will take the first available nurse, that it does not have to be a port nurse.

Ooooh, maybe I shouldn't call them port nurses. Makes them sound like they are in the Navy.

Anyway, all is well. I am continuing in the clinical trial.

Etiquette question: Yesterday in the clinic waiting room, I saw someone that I work with. This person seemed to be accompanying a parent. I did not go over to say hello. I was not sure if it would be appropriate or intrusive. Plus to be honest even though I say hello to this person every day in the hallway at work, I do not know their name. Hard to say hello when you do not have a name. Plus, I always wear my wig at work and always wear my baseball cap at the clinic. What if I was not recognizable? That would have been extra awkward.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you Karen. You are an inspiration to all.

Anonymous said...

Hi Karen,
Glad to hear things are going well with the clinical trial.
Glad also to hear you made it to the big library sale. It seemed to work out well in the new location. Hope you picked up many good reads.
As for your etiquette question, sounds like you handled it just fine. I'm sure if they had come over to say "hi" to you, you would have been your cheerful, friendly self :) but as it is, maybe they appreciated the privacy. (or were trying to give you some).
We are off to the mountains for Thanksgiving.
Hope you and Lou have an absolutely wonderful day.
Take care,
Mary Beth H.

Daria said...

Glad to hear the hemoglobin is up ... makes such a difference.