(Note: For those who are not regular readers, this is a National Novel Writing Month related entry)

It is early in the evening before Thanksgiving. Last night, the cat jumped up on the bed in the middle of the night and spent an extended period trying to get comfortable. As a result, I did not sleep well and again am very tired. I struggled through work.

Tuesday was another day that I struggled through work, but on that day, for a different reason. As I’ve gotten older my medical conditions have increased. It has been going on twenty years that I’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure. My blood pressure had always been a bit high, as it has been, I believe, for various members of my family. One year, however, it was high enough for the doctor to recommend that I start taking medications for my blood pressure.

Simply the idea of having to start taking medications for blood pressure, which I would probably have to do for the rest of my life, was depressing. It was the first sign of frailty and coming old age, even though I was still fairly young. To make things worse, when I started taking the medication, I developed a persistent cough. I started sucking on cough drops all the time and I believe this annoyed my wife of the time as well, particularly when we went to events like the theatre or symphony.

Eventually, we found a combination of blood pressure medications that worked well, but over the years we’ve had to try different combinations. With the medications, there came a need to track my liver enzymes, and from time to time, they would be elevated.

I was sent for an ultrasound a couple times. The first time, they didn’t find anything, but the second time, they technicians appeared more concerned. Someone else was brought into the room who looked at the images, and I was told that I had a simple kidney cyst. I was told that they are not uncommon, are typically only discovered during an ultrasound and rarely were anything to be concerned about.

Over time, other conditions have developed. One year, while preparing shrimp for Kim on Mother’s Day, by hands swelled up and started breaking out. We figured it was some sort of allergic reaction, perhaps to the shrimp. So, when I had my next physical, I told the doctor. She ran some blood tests which showed indications of several allergies. I went to an allergist and was run through a battery of different allergy tests. I was, in fact, allergic to shrimp. I was also allergic to lobster and crab. I was not allergic to clams, other bivalves or fish. I was also allergic to dust, and had various allergies to pollen.

I remember as a kid always getting runny noses when playing out in the fields, so the hay fever was not a surprise, but the shrimp, lobster and crab allergies was a disappointing surprise. I had always eaten as much shrimp, lobster and crabs as I could get my hands on.

My allergy isn’t that bad. I don’t need an epi pen. In fact, I’ve eaten shrimp and crab by mistake at times without any serious consequences. I remember once, I went to a Thai restaurant. I had some sweet and sour soup to start with. I found my mouth feeling a little numb and tingly, which I attributed to the spices. However, when I got to the bottom of the bowl of soup, there was a nice big shrimp sitting in the bottom. I didn’t eat the shrimp, and continued my meal without any other incidents.

Another time, we were on Cape Cod, and I had some stuffed flounder. It was very good, but it turned out that the stuffing was made with crab. Again, there was no noticeable reaction. I’ve also eaten at Hibachi restaurants where the meal where everything was prepared on the same large grill. Eating hibachi from a grill that has been used to prepare shrimp created no ill effects.

Another condition that seems to be hereditary is high cholesterol. Eventually, I was put on medication for this. Since then, I’ve taken to eating oatmeal much more often, and sometimes, when I remember, taking fish oil capsules. Since then, my blood pressure has continued to inch upward, but my cholesterol seems to be doing pretty well.

Nonetheless, with all these pills, it is important for me to have blood tests every now and then. Some of these blood tests need to be done when you have been fasting, so, since I had had oatmeal for breakfast before my doctor’s appointment, I couldn’t have my blood test the day of the appointment.

The doctor wrote up an order for me to get my blood tested at the lab at her office. However, that would require me to come into work late another day. Since I work for a health clinic, I asked to see if I could get my lab work down with the lab the clinic uses. In fact, that worked out better. The doctor could send the request electronically and get the results electronically.

So, on Tuesday, I skipped my morning oatmeal and headed into work. As if often the case, it was a chaotic morning, and I didn’t get a chance to head over to the lab to get my blood drawn until later in the morning. However, I wanted to get it done as quickly as possible so I could break my fast with some yoghurt and fruit I had brought to the office.

I went to the lab, and the phlebotomist said that she could see me right away. She went on the computer and got the lab request that my doctor had submitted and printed it out, along with the bar coded labels for the tubes of blood she would draw. She was a congenial woman and we chatted about various things.

I’ve never been great with needles, and always flinch when I get shots or have blood drawn. When I was a kid, my father would also give blood at the local blood drives. When I went off to college, I resolved to do the same thing. However, I skipped my senior year of high school and started college when I was seventeen. Because of this, they wouldn’t accept my blood the first time I tried to donate, unless a parent came along and gave permission. My parents were hundreds of miles away, so I didn’t start giving blood until my sophomore year of college.

I would explain to the blood drive workers my strong dislike of needles and my hope to get over it by giving blood at blood drives. I gave blood in college. I gave blood when I was home on summer vacation. When I moved to New York, I gave blood at various places I worked. After a few years, however, AIDS came onto the scene. The screening was a lot more rigorous and it just made the time it took to give blood take longer. Friends of mine who were gay were told they couldn’t give blood and the whole experience started to sour for me, so I drifted away from giving blood.

Now, I give a few vials of blood when I need to, to check my cholesterol, liver enzymes, and anything else that might need testing.

The blood was quickly drawn, with a minimum of discomfort and I headed back to my office.

Another reason that I wanted to use the lab that I did was that it is possible to get your results back online. I’m very interested in personal and electronic health records and I hope to be able to get the test results online. Some of the results, like my cholesterol are numbers that I have a good sense at the acceptable levels. Other numbers, I’ll have no idea what they really mean. For them, I expect the doctor will simply say that they’re in an acceptable range.

However, other times that I’ve been to the doctor, I’ve been told what my cholesterol levels were, but I typically forget them on the way home, except for the general range. I would be nice to be able to look them up at any point, as well as to track them year to year.

The system that the lab uses requires the doctor to give a pin to the patient that can be used to verify that the doctor has given permission to the patient to see the data. I can understand the reasons doctors might want that. However, I believe the government just put into effect a ruling that patients should be able to get to the data without requiring the doctors permission. I may try to find that ruling and contact the lab and ask them to permission my account, even without the doctor’s permission.

This is for a few reasons. One, I like to stir things up a little bit. Two, I would like to encourage the lab to get with the new Federal ruling. Three, while I don’t imagine my doctor would have any objection issuing a pin to me to access the data, it is just one more thing that the doctor’s shouldn’t have to be dealing with. Their time is busy enough already without needing more medical bureaucracy.