The
last time we visited the neurologist in Pensacola, I asked him about Carol
getting tested for a glutathione deficiency.
The nurse who visited our house a couple of months ago told us that she
has such a deficiency. Glutathione is a
chemical the brain makes that helps us with our memory. As we get older, the brain makes less of
it. When I told the doctor about it, he
was a bit skeptical. He excused himself
for a few minutes. When he returned, he
said he did some quick research. He said
he would authorize such testing, but he cautioned me that it might cost me a
"small fortune" since it isn't standard treatment that insurance
might not cover.
After
a month of trying to convince She Who Must Be Obeyed (and a gentle reminder
from the hospital to 'get it done'), we went to get it done last week. The last time we tried to get something done
locally, things didn't work out since our local medical center and the hospital
we go to in Pensacola suck at sharing information. Since we were in the hospital's system, we
opted to go the hospital's 'local area' lab (more on that later). I knew of one such facility that was a little
east of Destin.
Last
week we ventured to that facility. We were
familiar with it because that's where we found an autoimmune specialist who
diagnosed Carol with Sjögren's Syndrome (it's in the neighborhood of
lupus). When we got there, I suspected
we weren't where we needed to be. I was
right. The lady I spoke to told me to go
further east where the Sandestin Resort is.
We went there, showed them what I needed and they told us to have a
seat. We were in the right place, or so
we thought. After about 20 minutes, we
heard Carol's name and off we went. The
lab tech looked at our paperwork, then started looking for the blood tube she
needed. After searching all over her
little cubicle, she told us "we only do the basic tests here. She needs a
special tube that we don't have. You'll need to go the Sacred Heart
hospital". My heart sank because I
thought she meant the hospital in Pensacola. "No!" she said.
"There's a Sacred Heart hospital just two minutes east of here". I
started to breathe again. She called the lab at the hospital to tell them to
expect us. We thanked her for her help
and set off toward our third destination of the morning.
The
lab tech gave us perfect instructions about how to find the lab in the
hospital. Once we got there, an older
gentleman volunteered his help, so we took him up on it. He took us straight to the lab, whereupon we
thanked him for his help. We gave the
lady at the window our paperwork and waited.
Luckily the Air Force gave us excellent training on "hurry up and
wait". Carol's name was called, and in we went. One lab tech (I will call her 'Grumpy') was
asking us why we were there. I told her if
she wanted an argument then she needed to call the lab tech who sent us there
because I wasn't in the mood. Grumpy
searched high and low, and it turned out they didn't have the 'special tubes'
either. She checked another place - no
joy. So, she asked them to order some
special tubes. I asked her if the
special tubes came from Venus or something, which gave Grumpy a chuckle. She said it would take about a week for the Venusian
tubes to come in, and she told me to call back in a week
Meanwhile,
there was another test to be run.
Another lab tech (I'll call her 'Happy') asked whether we should wait
for the Venusian tubes and do all the tests at once. I told her "as long as we're here, let's
do the one you CAN do so today's trip won't be wasted". While that was being done, there was another
lab tech (I'll call her 'Doc') who told us her mother has Alzheimer's and that
she and her daughters are "at risk". She said she's too chicken to
take the test. I can't fault her
there. Then I thought back to a previous
visit with the neurologist and when he told me there wasn't a test for
Alzheimer's. But I guess there's a
different one to see if you're "at risk" rather than one to see if
you actually have it. So Happy did the
other test, and Grumpy gave us the number to call in a week. Off we went…
We
had Monday off for Columbus Day. It was
only six days (not a full week) since our visit to Sacred Heart in
Sandestin. The lady who answered told me
the Venusian tubes hadn't come in, but could I leave a number where I can be
reached. They would call me. Sure enough, I got the call on Thursday. Friday morning, we were off back to
Sandestin. As it turned out, a tropical
storm was forming in the Gulf of Mexico and it was heading our way. We've had many tropical storms and a few
hurricanes come through here in the 20 years we've lived here. Despite the doom and gloom that seems the be
the Weather Channel's stock in trade, we tend to brush off tropical storms
around here. We're used to them. The danger from such storms is that people
around here forget how to drive when such storms come through - they're overly
cautious. Adding to the incoming storm
is the road construction east of Destin.
Highway 98 is being widened. The
last time there was such construction it took five years to finish the two-year
project, but I digress.
We
got to the lab without any difficulty.
It's 33.5 miles door-to-door from our house to the hospital. Then we waited for about an hour and a
half. We saw some interesting things
while we waited. There was a woman
dressed in a duck costume who was walking up and down the halls, advertising a
local "Duck Regatta". Then
there was a cute little white dog named Duffy who was being wheeled around the
hospital. He's got all the right badges
for going around the hospital to visit patients. Such a friendly dog…
After
a while Carol's name was called. Happy
was there, as was Doc. It must have been
Grumpy's day off. Happy remarked
"we have some special tubes for you".
I remarked "yeah, we think you had to order them from
Venus". That made her and Doc
giggle. Doc said something about not
remembering things. I told her my
affliction is called 'CRS'. She looked
at me quizzically, and I told her it means "Can't Remember
Shit". She grinned and gave me a
thumbs up. While I was waiting, I
noticed Doc had some tattoos on her arms.
I asked about them - on one shoulder is Rosie the Riveter; on the other
is Wonder Woman. Once Happy was done draining Carol of her blood, she took out
the package of the 'tubes from Venus' and said "if you ever need another
test like this done, we're ready for you."
And
now we wait. The next visit to the
neurologist is October 29th. Stay tuned.
