Ok folks, I've tried my best but my house is still a mess and I leave for NYC tomorrow. But at least my remodeled bedroom looks pretty good - the new furniture was delivered today and I'll have Circuit City deliver the flat-screen tv once I am home again.
The last couple weeks have been a roller-coaster: I had been pretty good at staying focused on what I wanted to accomplish, but it turned out the bathroom fixtures had to be special ordered, the ottoman I ordered to match the new chair hasn't arrived (but they kindly offered to deliver a green ottoman instead of the nougat-colored one I ordered etc.
But the coup de grace was today when Dr. B's nurse e-mailed me that the 1 pint of blood I managed to donate, which had to be frozen because I gave it before my surgery date got pushed back 3 weeks, was rejected by the NY Blood Center that freezes blood because my unit was (wrongfully) labeled "contaminated." The local blood bank lab that runs all the tests contaminated my sample (not my unit of blood) with the Hepatitis C virus and marked the entire unit as "contaminated"; my own doctor had all the tests done again and they, not surprisingly, came up negative. Lindy told me that HSS wouldn't care even if I were positive because it's my own blood. But because the blood had to be frozen, the NY Blood Center refused to freeze it. Lindy explained to them that the sample had been contaminated and I really am negative, but the NYBC said "sorry, it's policy." Can you believe how Kafka-esque this autologous donation process is? I made 7 attempts to donate, succeeded in only given a half unit, which was thrown out, then the full unit, a sample of which was contaminated in some lab and now that unit also is being thrown out. And I'm now out-of-pocket about $500 for the processing & shipping costs and will still have to rely on donor blood (I'm not worried about the quality of the donor blood, but it really pisses me that I spent so much time for the 7 visits and have nothing to show for it due to the incompetance / poor quality control in a lab where the workers probably don't care that their sloppy work has such consequences - several nurses have told me that lab contamination is not that uncommon.) and
Thanks all for allowing me to vent.
I probably will not check in to the forum after Wednesday as I plan to do some serious eating, drinking, and shopping in Macy's toy department before 12/26.
I deeply appreciate all the support and help I have received from all of you who have taken the time to share your experiences.
Janet
The last couple weeks have been a roller-coaster: I had been pretty good at staying focused on what I wanted to accomplish, but it turned out the bathroom fixtures had to be special ordered, the ottoman I ordered to match the new chair hasn't arrived (but they kindly offered to deliver a green ottoman instead of the nougat-colored one I ordered etc.
But the coup de grace was today when Dr. B's nurse e-mailed me that the 1 pint of blood I managed to donate, which had to be frozen because I gave it before my surgery date got pushed back 3 weeks, was rejected by the NY Blood Center that freezes blood because my unit was (wrongfully) labeled "contaminated." The local blood bank lab that runs all the tests contaminated my sample (not my unit of blood) with the Hepatitis C virus and marked the entire unit as "contaminated"; my own doctor had all the tests done again and they, not surprisingly, came up negative. Lindy told me that HSS wouldn't care even if I were positive because it's my own blood. But because the blood had to be frozen, the NY Blood Center refused to freeze it. Lindy explained to them that the sample had been contaminated and I really am negative, but the NYBC said "sorry, it's policy." Can you believe how Kafka-esque this autologous donation process is? I made 7 attempts to donate, succeeded in only given a half unit, which was thrown out, then the full unit, a sample of which was contaminated in some lab and now that unit also is being thrown out. And I'm now out-of-pocket about $500 for the processing & shipping costs and will still have to rely on donor blood (I'm not worried about the quality of the donor blood, but it really pisses me that I spent so much time for the 7 visits and have nothing to show for it due to the incompetance / poor quality control in a lab where the workers probably don't care that their sloppy work has such consequences - several nurses have told me that lab contamination is not that uncommon.) and
Thanks all for allowing me to vent.
I probably will not check in to the forum after Wednesday as I plan to do some serious eating, drinking, and shopping in Macy's toy department before 12/26.
I deeply appreciate all the support and help I have received from all of you who have taken the time to share your experiences.
Janet
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