Unfortunately, I had gotten there at 4:30 and most of the phlebotomy room staff leaves around 4:00 to run around and do other important doctor-tasks--most probably that of the stab-people-in-the-arms-repeatedly kind. So I walked past the seemingly unstaffed and closed front desk to where I could call someone to come do the work for me.
When a man finally came down to where I was waiting he told me I had to check in at the front desk...but as we all already know, it was unstaffed and pretty much closed. So he brought me to another very angry looking woman instead who was sitting in an office and asked her to register me so he could take the tests and be on his way. He asked to take a seat and I apologized to her (why?) and she just replied with a very quick "It's FINE" without even looking up at me. I brushed it off and let it go.
After she finished whatever it was she was doing she asked me for my patient card...which I had forgotten for the first time in a very long time. She went off on a little rant about how I shouldn't be forgetting it and how it makes it so much easier on them when we bring them and asked some questions like "Did you lose it? Or did you just leave it at home?" with probably the rudest sounding tone you may have ever heard in a CANCER HOSPITAL. At this point I was already thinking to myself:
but of course I had to keep my cool because she still hadn't really done anything to help me. So I told her my name and she spent a literal 2 minutes looking me up and asking me my day of birth and what not. Then of course came the part where she had to print out my wristband. She asked me what doctor sent me and I replied with a simple and easy "Dr. Nguyen from Endocrinology" to which she replied "Do you not know their first name? Do you know how many of those we have in this hospital?"
At this point I am doing everything I can to hold in an explosion of anger and I tell her that that's all the information I have and that there cannot possibly be that many Nguyens specifically in endocrinology. She shot me some bs about how she can't look up something specific and how her computer doesn't hold any of the orders for certain tests and then slaps the name of my normal oncologist onto the wristband and sends me on my way saying "he can figure it out in the lab"....which seems sort of unprofessional? Perhaps illegal? Maybe not illegal but...I don't know...wrong?
She prints the band and puts it on my wrist and I get up seething and right before I exit she says "YOU'RE WELCOME."
And you guys.....well....
I turned around so fast I'm surprised nothing caught on fire. And then I raised hell. And I am both proud and embarrassed to say that these are my exact words:
"I didn't say thank you FOR A REASON. You were rude this entire time. (she interrupted me here and I basically told her not to interrupt me) You can't be giving patients going through post-chemotherapy bullshit any shit when you are literally paid to look names up in your fucking system. I don't see you getting a needle in YOUR arm today. You are a LITERAL.PIECE.OF.SHIT."With no response...or at least no wait time on my part for a response from what I assumed to be the spawn of Satan...I walked away quickly while a security guard yelled at me "MA'AM, YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO CALM DOWN" to which I responded with a quick shake of my head and then disappeared into the nearest bathroom to cry for like 3 minutes straight. MAN WAS IT A GOOD DAY TO BE ME.
So moral of the story is....you probably shouldn't let your anger and pent up teenage angst from three years ago get the best of you...at least not in a hospital....and not in front of your dad....
and IF YOU'RE WORKING IN A HOSPITAL WHERE PEOPLE ARE DYING EVERY DAY MAYBE YOU SHOULD BE A LITTLE MORE PATIENT AND NOT BE SO RUDE BECAUSE YOUR JOB CANNOT POSSIBLY BE THAT HARD. THANKS. COOL. SORRY. SORT OF. NOT REALLY.
Sort of.
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