Eleventh Hour Moments

March, 2009

I Need A What…!?!
So I had my annual gyn exam, all you ladies know what I’m talking about! And I am so happy it’s over and I’m thinking I did ok. But a few days later I get a call from the gyn’s office and it’s the nurse saying, “I’m calling to schedule you for a trans-vaginal ultrasound. I’m silently freaking out wondering what the heck is wrong with me that I need that! For those who don’t know…it’s a probe and…well, it needs to go in the Netherlands and take pictures of your insides! Ladies…you know what I’m talking about here. So I’m sweaty and losing my grip on the phone and I finally ask the nurse, “What do I need that for?” And she has no clue…she said, “The doctor ordered it.” So I tell her I want to know what I need that for and back and forth we go on the phone and I get no answer from this nurse! But as you all know…I too am a nurse and I think back to my appointment with the doctor and how he told me I really should get my ventral hernia fixed (I’ve been putting it off due to my “know too much about what goes on in the hospital and I don’t want to die yet” attitude.). So it clicks in my nurse brain…this lady on the phone means a hernia ultrasound (above my bellybutton) not a trans-vaginal ultrasound. So I tell her this information. And do you know what she says!?! She says, “Well, I saw that the doctor wrote ventral hernia ultrasound, but I only know how to order a trans-vaginal ultrasound so I just figured that’s what the doctor meant.” So the lesson for the day…don’t go get a medical test unless you know exactly what it is and what it is for!