Bittersweet News

[Write-brained]

The Wife receives a call at work today from her doctor's office. "Please come in so the doctor can discuss your test results with you."

Wife, always the pessimist, bolts out of work and drives to the doctor's office immediately without calling me. She's in tears by the time she gets there. Cancer runs in her family.

Nurse seats her in the office and tells her to sit. So she sits. And sits.

Finally the doctor and the nurse come in.

Doctor takes a look at my wife and looks down at his chart. Looks up again and then back down at his chart. Finally, he looks at the nurse and says of my wife, "This isn't Mrs. Rite-Brained, this is Mrs. Write-Brained. Write-Brained with a W. Not with an R.*"

The doctor turns to The Wife and says, "You're good."

Tests negative.

All I can say is thank you, God. Thank you so much. But please, please give strength to the young woman out there somewhere who received some very bad news today.


*Name has been changed. Obviously.

 

[BYH]

Wow. That's one complicated day.

 

[Freelance Hack]

Bless you for thinking about the other person. Hopefully, they'll get the right news and diagnosis.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

Thank goodness for your wife, Write-Brained. "Unsettling" probably only tips the iceberg.

Keep Pounding to whomever isn't as fortunate ...

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

Them vocalizing that in front of your wife might be grounds for a complaint.

Then again, do you know that there was a damning diagnosis in the other file?

Anyway.... jesus ****... I'm so happy for you.

 

[farmerjerome]

I'm glad your wife is cool.

Your story reminds me of the first time I had an HIV test (just to be safe, not that I'm a ****). I waited on pins and needles for a week.

It's not that I had anything to worry about, it's just the fear.

 

[Write-brained]

Them vocalizing that in front of your wife might be grounds for a complaint.

Then again, do you know that there was a damning diagnosis in the other file?

Anyway.... jesus ****... I'm so happy for you.

We're too relieved to file a complaint. It was an honest mistake. My wife had never seen that nurse before but she and the doctor knew one another, thankfully, or it could have become really bad.

As for the question: yes. She says it was easy to tell from the doctor's frustration and the fact that a doctor has never had to meet with her in the past to tell her that her test was negative.

 

[Write-brained]

Thanks everybody.

 

[buckweaver]

One of my best friends was once told that she'd never have kids because of some idiot medical diagnosis from the VA doctors.

Turns out they didn't know ****.

They called her a week later: "Uhh, our bad. We don't know ****. Now we think it's something else." Postscript: She had a daughter last year.

And glad to hear all is well, W-B.

 

[Matt Foley]

One of my buddies back in college went and got himself tested for STD's at the student health center. When he went a week or two later for the results, the nurse in the exam room told him how sorry he was, but that he had tested positive for the HIV virus, my buddy, in absolute disbelief, told them they must have made mistake, the nurse tells him they haven't and that he has it right there on his screen, which he suddenly realizes is the test results for a different student. Talk about a scare, and then an "Oh no" for the person whose about to find out they're HIV positive.

 

[alleyallen]

Bittersweet has never been more appropriately used than right here. Good heavens, Write, that's a tough deal but thank heavens your wife is OK. Prayers to the couple who might be facing tougher times, though.

 

[ondeadline]

If the news was good, why couldn't they have just told her that over the phone?

 

[silvershadow1981]

If the news was good, why couldn't they have just told her that over the phone?

My cynical mind tells me that the doc wouldn't make any money for the phone call. Other than that, glad to hear your wife is doing well, Write, and it's very admirable that you're concerned about the person who has to deal with that bad news.

 

[imjustagirl2]

If the news was good, why couldn't they have just told her that over the phone?

Because they were looking at someone else's results and thought the news was bad.

 

[ondeadline]

Crap. I reread the post and understand it now.

 

[MertWindu]

Awesome news for you, w-b. Incidentally, if your last name actually WAS Write-Brained, I think we'd all expect it to be your handle.

 

[qtlaw]

Good news for your wife. Sad to hear for the other person.