Assumed Incompetence

I went for a physical a few weeks ago.

The doctor said "Why don't we do bloodwork? Just to make sure everything is ok, make sure you're not deficient in anything since you're a vegetarian."

Cool.

In New York, you do not have bloodwork at the place that is demanding the bloodwork. You have to go to a "collection facility," at your convenience, have them send it to a lab, and then have the lab send it to your doctor.

I procrastinated, of course, because, well, getting blood taken isn't pleasant and because getting to a place that will draw blood isn't convenient. Transit time to the closest facility is an hour, plus unpredictable amount of waiting, so it wasn't something I could do unless I had a big block of time during work or if I got up early enough before work.

In the meantime, I went to another doctor's appointment. Dr. #2 needed bloodwork but for something different entirely and therefore ordered a set of different tests.

Sweet! I was very satisfied that I'd procrastinated and promptly went to have blood drawn after the second appointment.

I knew it would be complicated. I knew that the people at the facility would be unable to comprehend that the results had to be sent to two different doctors.

The woman behind the desk said that it wouldn't be a problem and had me fill out the form. After filling out the form, I went back to the desk and said "Perhaps I should fill out two forms?"

"Oh, yes, good idea."

The forms were filled out, a ton of blood was taken, and over a week later I hadn't heard from either doctor.

I called Dr. #2 and they said "No, we've gotten nothing. We should have gotten it by now if you did this last Monday."

I called The Lab, and they said "Oh, we faxed it to Dr. #2 at this fax number."

The fax number, of course, was the fax number for Dr. #1.

"Oh, no, that's the wrong fax number. That's my primary care."

"Oh, well, we didn't have a fax number for Dr. #2 so we just sent it there."

Of course. Instead of calling me and asking me for the fax number, they faxed the results to an arbitrary doctor.

It then occurred to me that perhaps Dr. #1 didn't receive what she was supposed to receive, since she got the tests for Dr. #2.

I called Dr. #1's office and, of course, they'd received nothing.

Of course.

Because people are incompetent.

This is not complicated.

I went in, had blood taken, and the results of tests are supposed to be sent to doctors.

But neither doctor would have gotten anything had I not called.

I mention this because I knew it would happen this way.

And I hate that I knew, because it only reinforces my negativity about the world and people.

This being said, I had a very nice experience yesterday involving people.

I haven't eaten at one of my favorite lunch spots in quite some time because a scene played out there about a month ago and I was terribly distraught.

I was paranoid about going back. The embarrassment didn't go away. "They won't remember," he said. "I think they will," I said.

I finally went back yesterday, because, dammit, I wanted a sandwich!

I walked in, ordered my sandwich, and when I got to the cash register, The Manager said "Oh! I thought you were never coming back!"

I said "I was terribly embarrassed."

The Manager explained himself. I said "Look, I'm on your side. I've been on your side the whole time. I understand."

"Well, I'm glad you're back. Really. I'm happy you came back."

This reinforced/confirmed my paranoia, but my paranoia didn't matter because The Manager was nice to me.

I don't know what my point is.

I guess the moral of the story is that it is best to assume the worst, because you will then be prepared for incompetence and pleasantly surprised when things turn out nicely.