Weird Unpleasantries

There have been a few weird things that have happened in regards to Other People.

One of the toughest things is not being able to tell my parents about the testing. I don't think my dad would have much to say about it but my mother would be, I am very sure, unhappy and not supportive.  What mother wants her child to take any risk?  My mother is especially cautious. And opinionated.  And Super Negative.  Ahem.  I have a fairly strong showing of the Mean Old Mama Bear Gene myself, so I do understand.  I just keep hoping that it will all work out with out causing her too much worry and me too much grief.

The other weird thing has been that the new transplant coordinator and I seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot.  I realize that this happens, and sometimes when it does, the best relationships ever can still develop, but no matter, it is no fun to have lots of misunderstandings and rough communications.

It started with her calling me after Arnold had received his kidney to verify that I was not wanting to continue.  I told her I did indeed want to continue as an altruistic donor.  I can understand this happening one time, but it has happened more than once.  After the third time, I sent a fairly hot email.  My friend that works there has assured me that they all know I want to continue. Great. 

Then there was this sudden urgent need for me to get some paperwork from a doctor that I saw 9 years ago.  This is after I had been approved to donate.  I did call the doctor, they had to go to storage to find the paperwork and then there was no response from the transplant team when I sent it.  "Oh, you should have never gone to all the trouble.  Just do the blood test again!"

Seriously? 

So I show up to do the blood test and you can guess what happened.  Not in the system, and so on.  She has not answered her phone once when I call.  That day I told the director of the lab that I hoped someone did an interview with people who quit trying to be donors because there might be some causes discovered in that process that the hospital could prevent, like NOT HAVING A CULTURE OF BAD SERVICE. 

Regardless, I am hanging in there.  There have been a few other times of "rough communication", but my attitude has improved.

The other weirdo unpleasantry has to do with my job.  When the call came out for the kidney, it came out in a newsletter about health and wellness.  There was an excellent description of the process.  There was also some mention that if 50 people tested (I think it was 50) then if everyone that could donate could it would help all of these people besides just Arnold.

I don't know for sure how many people, if any others, went through all the testing.  All I know is I made it all the way through and I am going to keep on going.

So one day someone at the police department, who I consider a friend, asked me to lunch.  He/She(I do not want to identify who He or She is, but He or She is not Really a He/She) told me not to meet him or her in the normal place but across the street.  I went to lunch with Him/Her and realized at some point something was up.  As in, I started feeling "hinkey" like the bad guys do when the cops are after them.

I did not let Him/Her buy my lunch (you know something was really up if I did that) and we went back to the department and He/She said that He/She had to go to another meeting and would drop me off north of the building.  As in, He/She cannot be seen with me!  RIDICULOUS, right?

  At that point He/She, parked on 14th, said that He/She was in a meeting, in recent days, with a group of people above sergeant in rank, all nameless, of course, who made it clear that they thought it was terribly sad that I had tried to donate, and also would have been terribly sad if I had donated and would hope that I would not continue on the altruistic path. He/She laughed in that "Oh, it is sad but kind of pathetic too" way when I asked why this was that these High Rankers would be thumbs down on altruistic donation?   

 I don't know for sure if the department has really backed off or if they have, it has anything to do with me or more to do with liability. 

Regardless, I told Him/Her that I would hope someone would contact me directly, and that I would not participate in this cloak and dagger malarkey, and I got out of the car and went back to work. 

No word from He/She.