Friday 27 April 2007
Prise de tête pour une prise de sang
At the clinic, for the anaesthetist’s appointment, I was given a list of blood tests that have to be done, and I was asked to bring the results with me. I was told to have them done a few days before the appointment and not two months before, so that the results would be up to date for my interview with the doctor.
So at the beginning of March I went to the test laboratory which is near me to show them my list. I wanted to know:
- how long it would take to get the results,
- did I need to make an appointment,
- did I need to be fasting.
The lady at reception answered that I could have the results the next day, that I didn’t need to be fasting and I didn’t need an appointment.
Perfect. So it was going to be easy.
Knowing that I have an appointment with the anaesthetist on the afternoon of 4 May, I could then have the tests on 3 May and have the results on the morning of 4 May. But that didn’t seem to me good planning, given the complete absence of a margin for error if there were a problem.
If I added the possibility (undoubtedly slight, but discretion is the better part of valour [lit: caution is the mother of safety]) that there could be a problem or a delay in the analysis of my samples, it would be better to go to the laboratory on 2 May to be able to pick up the results on 3 May.
But it was entirely possible that an enoooormous catastrophe would befall me on 2 May and prevent me going to the laboratory on that day. As a result, that would bring me back to my original calculations and their failings, namely the reduction to nothing of my safety margin. It seemed to me therefore altogether safer to go there before 2 May.
1 May being a holiday, that brought me to 30 April.
Except that the day after 30 April being 1 May made me nervous. Yes, a holiday, that might possibly upset the routine for a laboratory analysis (different schedules, different time limits, etc …) So a snag could arise. They could mislay my samples of 30 April and not find them until 3 May. With the time required to analyse them, it would inevitably be too late….
Anyway, I decided to go there this morning, and fasting, (you never know, the lady could have been distracted by the background music at the moment I asked my question and may have said anything to me).
I will have the results on the evening of 30 April …
[original in French]
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Papillon, the stress you are having at the moment makes me think of a pregnant woman who is afraid of giving birth :) Except that it is a new You that will be born?
ReplyDeleteI have already left a comment elsewhere, just to recommend a magnificent film about female circumcision: Dunia, an Egyptian film which was banned in its own country (!?) The young woman in question tried to recover her body by means of poetry and eastern dance. It’s very powerful, very poetic and the theme of female circumcision is treated with decency, and I think that every woman will recognise herself in it in some way.
You've done well. The tests have to be recent and they will be, and it's good to allow a margin of error. It's reassuring.
ReplyDeleteIt's always this worry of missing something and not being able to carry out the last steps before the big day that frightens me. In effect that's why, Claude, the margin of error I plan for everything is a like security blanket:)
ReplyDeleteShiraz, I think and hope it's a new me that will be born, or at least an "enriched" me. Thank you for the recommendation you made. I'm going to try to get myself this film.