Don't aggravate a hungry preggo

So, me gets a call from the receptionist at my doctor's office yesterday, telling me that the results from my gestational Diabetes test (which I took last week) are borderline (or 'equivocal' as the medical term seems to be), so I need to go back and retest ASAP. Goody. Nothing like spending another morning gulping down lukewarm, sugary orange syrup crap. (Which makes me wonder why the lab techs don't follow the instructions on the bottle, which clearly read "drink more palatable if chilled first." Sigh. Does no one read the fine print?!)

This time--the test would require complete fasting (to ensure that my blood is not full of post-Christmas chocolate and sugars. Yes, I indulged in one or two remaining candy canes when taking apart the dining room X-mas tree....) and a two-hour wait. Fun times.

So, I had myself a nice, nutritious dinner last night and stopped eating at 7:00 p.m. in anticipation of this morning's test. I got to the blood lab early, but there was already a line-up. No worries. I expected this. I patiently waited my turn. The lab tech did not hand me the orange goop immediately, and instead asked me to sit down. No worries. I've had her before and she's always brought it to me a few minutes later.

Fifteen minutes go by. Three or four other patients are served--another preggo, who was instantly handed her orange drink. Noticing this, I decided to stand up and go back to the front desk. Perhaps she had forgotten me in the slew of patients who traipsed in behind me? I politely asked her if she could give me the drink so I could get started. (For those who've never had the joy of experiencing this test, blood is drawn one hour after consuming the nasty, Orange-Crush-without-the-fizz-like-beverage. The hour only begins once the drink has been consumed--and the whole bottle must be gulped down within five minutes.)

She looks at me and laughs. "Oh no," she replies. "You had to fast, so you'll have to have blood drawn first--then drink it and wait the two hours. You'll get your blood drawn after one hour and then after two."

"Really? Geez, I'll be here forever. Okay, how long until you'll draw my blood the first time?" I ask, a little annoyed that she didn't explain the procedure right from the get-go.

"I don't know. We're going as fast as we can," she shrugged, gesturing to the pile of requisition forms beside her and then to the waiting room. "You'll just have to wait, that's why you're here--since you failed the first test!" She says rudely, overly loud and smirking.

I get the wait. There's a line-up. But all I was asking for was an estimate on the timeframe. Not that difficult a question to respond to, I think. And, for the chick to announce to the whole room that I 'failed' the first test, just seems unprofessional. I know not everyone in the medical field is known for their courtesy, but isn't there something about patient confidentiality in that Hypocratic Oath they take?!?

Plus, I'm not certain 'failed' is the right word. If she'd read her own friggin' results, she would have seen that that the results were 'equivocal.' It's the whole reason I was back here to do a second test!

Anyways, turned out, I had to wait an hour just to get my blood drawn the first time, therby allowing me to drink the gunk. Finally, after one rude technician, two more hours, three Kindle book samples, three vials of blood, and 17 hours of fasting, I was able to leave.

Now, not only was I incredibly starving (and anyone who knows me will agree that I'm a b*tch when I'm hungry!), but super annoyed. I had lost the whole morning at the bloody clinic, and I still had plenty of pre-publishing edits to take care of at work. So much for my plan of leaving early on a Friday afternoon!

Hubby, who insisted that I take the time to eat a proper meal, took me out for a real sit-down lunch. At least an hour at a restaurant with him, uninterrupted by B, made up for the bitchery I had had to deal with at the clinic all morning.

UPDATE: Wrote this spiel on Friday, but posting it now on Monday. I have not yet received the results of the test, so I'm going to go on the basis that no news is good news and hope that I do not have Gestational Diabetes. More will be revealed at my doctor's appointment tomorrow....