Tay-Sachs paper trail

A History repeats entry

When I had my blood draw done (oh, who are we kidding - it wasn't so much a "draw" as it was an oil rig set up to suck out as much fluid as earthly possible from the limited supply my body carries), one of the tests the technician was drawing for was Tay-Sachs.

He didn't know what that was. So he looks it up, figures out where it needs to go, what size vial, what kind of label, etc., etc. I drag my pathetic, now-empty veins to the car and pretend I'm not too faint to drive. I'm not home an hour when we get a phone call from the lab. The Tay-Sachs sample needs a form filled out, could I come back that day and fill it out.

Sure. I've had orange juice. And mugged a vampire for his stash of blood. I'm good to go.

I pop in a little while later, tell the clerk about the phone call and she gets the tech. Who comes out from the back, leans across the reception desk and whispers, "You Jewish?"

I lean forward towards him and whisper, "Uh huh." And think, "Why? You got good kosher candy?"

He shows me this form, which in bold letters across the top states something to the effect of, "persons of the Jewish persuasion must complete this form." I think this poor guy felt that was discriminatory - why should I be singled out for a blood test because I'm Jewish? I explained that Tay-Sachs is a disease that is prevalent in Jews, and he seemed much happier then. I filled out the form (which mainly asked my Jewish ancestry (Ashkenazi or Sephardi), if my husband is Jewish, and his ancestry, and was there any history of Tay-Sachs in the family), handed it off to the receptionist and went on my merry way.

Ha - I should have brought a sleeping bag. I wasn't home very long when I got the call that I knew had to be coming. They didn't take enough of a sample for the Tay-Sachs test, could I come in for another draw. Fine. If you can find it, you can have it.

All was well and good until a few days later. Apparently, not only the testing lab needed the form filled out, but the test results were then sent to a local hospital which records all that information for some reason and they need the form, too. Why can't they just take a copy of the form I gave the lab, you ask? Yeah, I asked that too. Nobody knew why. So off I went to the lab to fill out another form, identical ot the first, for them to send ot the hospital.

On my next visit to the fertility clinic, the secretary called me over and said there was an additional form I needed to fill out, and could I do it while I was there. Of course, I'd already filled out 85 bajillion forms, what was one more?

Wouldn't you know, it was that damn Tay-Sachs form again.

posted by projgen @ 03:36