Monthly Archives August 2007

Update on LabCorp Incident

Monday morning at 8:00 I was on the phone trying to track down someone to talk to at LabCorp to discuss our traumatizing experience there Saturday morning. As I had previously blogged I was very upset and HAD to report this to someone so no other child or adult had this type of experience.

So I quickly told NHL what I was doing. I explained to my just 4 year old child that I needed him to be very quiet while I went on the phone. He of course asked me why. I told him I was calling someone to tell them about what happened the other day when he had blood drawn. He said to me “The lady was bad Mommy!” I told him he was right and because of that I had to make the call so no other person gets hurt by her.

I called the 800 number that I found on the website. The woman gave me the name of the supervisor locally, along with her number and then connected me to the woman. I told the woman that I felt it was my duty to contact her about the horrible experience I had there this weekend.I also mentioned that I had gone there numerous times through the years and never had a problem.

The woman listened and you could hear her jaw hit the floor from time to time. I have her THING’s name and she said it was odd that she didn’t do well with children since the location she normally works at has a large number of pediatric patients. While listening she would break in a few times to ask me questions about the other employees. She was mortified to hear that NONE of the other people stepped in to assist until after NHL had been screaming for well over 20 minutes. Over and over I told the woman that I know my child was horrible with the screaming, but it doesn’t excuse the unprofessional behavior of THING or many other workers there. She also was upset that it took THING likely overhearing from me or one of the other people that I was ticked and complaining (getting her name) to change her attitude. She said too little too later. Her words not mine. The woman was nice and told me it was normal behavior that NHL had and they know how to work with kids and she also agreed she should have backed away if she wasn’t comfortable with it.

One other thing that I mentioned to the woman was that LabCorp is definitely not the only outpatient laboratory facility. That we have a lot of options in this area and almost all of the insurance companies allow patients to choose. She concurred and told me that she is well aware of the importance of customer service.

So we shall see if she follows up with me. She was extremely nice and told me that THING will definitely be hearing about this and have consequences.

One other piece of information that my mother told me later. Many of the people that work at LabCorp on the weekend are NOT full time LabCorp employees. Many of them work at other hospitals in the area and pick up extra money by working there on weekend. My parents found this out when they met someone they knew from where mom works working at LapCorp when Dad has his blood drawn there a few weekends ago.

C’est Moi

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Happy 4th Birthday NHL – Part 2

So once JL was home we packed up the boys and did birthday dinner. Originally NHL had requested going to Moe’s. Then suddenly he opted for something else. He selected Wendy’s. Strange request, but we said okay. So we went to Wendy’s. Upon arriving in the parking lot I noted a 57 passenger bus parked outside and nothing else. NEVER a good sign. So the other people that pulled in at the same time as us went in and came flying out and got back in their car and went to the drive thru. I had JL and NHL go to look before I took JSL out of the car. Sure enough half of the seats were taken and about 30 additional people were still waiting on line to order food.

UGH!

So we piled into the car and went to order at the drive thru. We were lucky and it didn’t take us much to order our bargain dinner. We spent $6.31 including tax for 3 of us to eat. The food went with us to my parents house and we ate.

After dinner while waiting for H & J to come over we opened the presents from Nana and Papa. Here are some photos from that time:

The birthday “crown” from Nana & Papa

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Lots of things to open

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Balloons from Nana and Papa

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All smiles thanks to a Spiderman Card

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Shake N’ Go Airplane

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USA Puzzle

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Check out this reaction!

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Yum! Chocolate sport balls

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Meanwhile JSL is busy doing his favorite hobby – fist sucking!

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Cars sheets

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And last but not least was a coloring book and here’s the activity book. Perfect for Mommy and NHL to work on these few weeks while home before starting PreK.

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At about this time H & J arrived. NHL was so happy to see them. He immediately dug into his present from them (being nice and not blogging the photo of H wearing NHL’s B-day crown).

A gorgeous Cars backpack that had a lunch bag that attached to it. The colors were amazing. I really hope H & J know it was a great gift and understood the 4 year olds reaction to jump on to cake and toys.

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Next it was time to dig into the cookie cake. Here are some photos of NHL digging into it. We all had too much fun showing each other our beautiful blue tongues. Yes, the adults were more into it than the 4 year old – sad isn’t it?

Waiting to blow out the candle

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Blowing out the candle

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Eating the YUMMY cake!

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So much for the dentist cleaning the other day.

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Charming view n’est pas?

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And one more of the blue tongue

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We stayed around for a little while to talk with everyone and let NHL play. JSL took a mini-nap on H’s shoulder. Then when he woke up and NHL was SO tired we packed it up and went home.

It was a busy day and certainly not the last of the birthday celebrations. We did more today with Aunt S and have his family party this coming Sunday.

C’est Moi

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Happy 4th Birthday NHL – Part 1

I knew that I would get swamped with things to do Friday and over the weekend. That’s why I blogged about NHL’s B-day a little in advance. Here’s an update on how things went Friday.

Friday morning NHL woke up and came into our bed. He opened his gifts. Just as he was finishing JSL woke up. So the boys were together in our bed lounging. Here they are:

Opening gifts in the morning

The two boys resting

After this NHL got dressed for “green” day at nursery school. This also happened to be his last day there. Yes, after three years there our time at daycare was officially over for NHL.

Since we wanted to have a cake of some kind for that night I went out with JSL early to find a chocolate chip cookie cake. Who knew it would be that hard to locate? After two stores and almost crying, the second store baker heard that it was for my 4 year old’s B-day. He offered to make a batch for me if I didn’t need it until later. Perfect!

So JSL and I went to see Papa at work and then went home to rest before heading to NHL’s party at nursery school. Mimi came over and went with us to the little party. When we got there the daycare director took us into the faculty room so I could frost the cupcake cones. Lucky me, JL had the camera and decided to take photos. Luckily I was boring after a while and everyone left me to frost and sprinkle while they focused on JSL and his smiles.

Cupcake cones - YUMMY!

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See he’s much more interesting than me:
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All smiles

All serious suddenly. Clearly he was sick of the flashes from the camera.
Dad enough photos already!

Now the yummy cupcake cones all done:
Cupcake cones

So we all went up in the elevator with the goodies for the kids. NHL was so surprised to see Mimi there. After he noticed Mimi he announced to his friends that the cupcake cones and JSL were there. I guess the parents don’t matter ;)

Here are some photos of NHL greeting us, going to see JSL and eating his cupcake cone.

NHL turns to see us coming in (note he's at the computer)

Showing JSL his B-day crown

Gobbling everything up

Mimi feeding JSL

CHEESE! The B-day boy on his last day of daycare EVER

Next NHL and I went to give cupcake cones to all of his past teachers and to say goodbye. Then it was time to head out for the last time. So we packed everything up and went home.

JL came home later and stopped on the way home to pick up the cookie cake to bring to my parents house to enjoy later. I will post about that in the morning. Now I must head to sleep.

C’est Moi

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MAJOR LabCorp vent

Ever have one of those moments where you feel like the worst parent in the world? Today JL and I had that. NHL needed to have blood drawn to check for lead exposure. We have an older house that may be an issue, no less the toy scares of late.

So we decided to head to LabCorp at 11:00 this morning to get it over with. We figure this would give us time for results before his physical in a few weeks. We arrived and the waiting room was filled, but seemed to be moving. After about 15 minutes they called NHL’s name. I went up and they took the papers and things. She then came and called us back. JL was feeding JSL and asked if he should come. At the same time the THING (as I will now call her) rudely said “Only one person back with the patient!” So, I followed the bitch  THING back to the torture chamber  room. 

This is where I should have packed up my child and left.  Mentally slapping myself for being so DUMB!

We went into the room and NHL was clearly scared about this. He’s only had blood drawn two other times that I can recall and none recently. Anyway, NHL starts to fidget, cry and yell as she comes near him. I am trying to hold him on my lap and well it wasn’t working. So THING starts to yell at my 4 year old son. Yes, you read that correctly. THING who was clearly over 30 yelled at a scared little 4 year old child. I saw that I was not able to hold him and told her I was switching with my husband. I stomped out with NHL.

I took JSL from JL and told him to beware  THING was yelling at him (mind you I used other choice words in front of the entire waiting room). They clearly had heard the screams from my child and they should know why. So he went in. I sat there listening to my poor baby scream bloody murder. Several of us were talking about how rude and unprofessional the people were on the weekend there. They were complaining about working. One person went as far as to make a suggestion of another place to take NHL next time. So I saw the Patient Survey sitting on the counter. I went and grabbed one – still hearing the mortifying screams from NHL. I nicely asked the man sitting inside for the name of THING who was with my screaming child. He claimed not to know and another man came, so I asked him. I wanted to know so I could tell them. I finally got THING’s name. 

At that point I had screw it and went back to my husband and screaming child. Let them kick me out. At this point he has blood all over a gauze pad and is hyperventilating. I assume they were done.

WRONG!!!!

She messed up and didn’t get his vein. No, I am not kidding. So she’s setting up for take two. JSL seemed to make her get a little more pleasant. Anyway, I was now holding his arm, JL his body/head/feet, and she was going for the vein. THING misses the vein again. So she’s fishing around his arm with the needle (a butterfly one) to try to get it. I am mortified. NHL is screaming in agony. By this point he’s been in the room at least 20 minutes. Another phlebotomist came in and could see she was butchering my child. 

JL and I discussed what to do in front of everyone. We could jet, but how are we going to get him back into another place to get the blood we need for this very important test? Or we let another person try one last time. 

We opted for the second choice. 

So now JL is holding NHL’s body/legs/head, I have his arm that is being attacked and THING is pretending to assist. This new person got it on the first stab. . . no lame fishing needed. 

By this point NHL is drenched. His head is soaked in sweat from screaming and crying for 30+ minutes. JL and I have nerves that are shot. We immediately leave and take NHL to get the Cold Stone ice cream for his Birthday that he had a certificate for. 

So tonight I sat down and filled out the patient survey. I was honest and explained exactly what happened. I think they need to know. I would have preferred if THING had just said she didn’t do kids and would have waited for the other woman to do it. What a mess and now we wait for the nightmares tonight. I will also be calling Monday to lodge a complaint locally. GRRRRRR!

C’est Moi

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I’m not old!

Last night JL was changing JSL’s diaper, so I took NHL to the bathroom before bed. We were chatting along the way. Here’s our conversation:

Me: “Wow, NHL you are going to be 4 tomorrow, you are SO old!”

NHL: “No, Mommy I’m not old, I’ll be old when I’m 20.”   (He was very matter of fact)

Me: “So 20 is old is it?”

NHL: “Yes, 20 is old and 21 older.”

Me: “You’re right NHL. Wow, if 20 is old then how old is daddy?”

NHL: “He’s VERY old. He’s thirty!”   

(Me trying not to laugh hysterically at the way he said it)

Me: “NHL he’s actually 32 now, what do you think of that?”

NHL: “Very old!”

At about this time JL comes with JSL and sees us laughing in the bathroom – kind of a strange sight .. . -er well in other households maybe. 

It goes to show once again that kids say the darndest things!

C’est Moi

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