What’s Your Type?

Last Thursday, we had our most recent appointment with the O.B. It was so eventful I have to write 2 entries about it. So, here goes the first one.

After our previous visit, Kristina was given a card to carry that includes all kinds of important info, including her blood type. It was marked A-positive. Up until that point, including 8 years in the Army with associated dog tags, Kristina was under the impression she was O-positive.

She pointed this out on Thursday and told them the results could be wrong. In response, the nurses tried to convince her she was, in fact, A-positive because their computers said so. One nurse even went so far to say, “So from now on you’re A-positive.” Her condescending tone really had my blood boiling. This same nurse then got confused about which blood type is the universal donor (O-negative, incidentally).

One of the few redeeming qualities of the new doctor we met that day (more on him in the 2nd entry) was that he agreed with us when we insisted she should have her blood retested. However, he said we would simply wait until her next blood test at 7 months (3 months from now!).

Kristina was the first to realize the problem with this (unfortunately after we left the doctors’ office). What if her blood sample was mixed up with someone else’s, and all the good results we received a couple month’s ago were inaccurate?

Understandably, this bothered her (and me) a great deal. I told her we might have some blood typing kits at my school (sometimes it’s handy to be a biologist). So, the next day she had me call up one of my colleagues (Dr. X) to ask about the tests. Dr. X had some available, and the next thing you know, we were headed to my department.

This situation presented an interesting dilemma: on the one hand, if the test revealed she was O-positive, she would continue to doubt the validity of her previous blood results…on the other hand, if it showed she was A-positive, she would feel like something about her identity had suddenly changed.

With Dr. X’s help, we did the test and found she was…drum roll, please…A-positive. So, we’re relieved and feel more confident in the previous blood results…and my opinion that “military intelligence” is an oxymoron appears to be validated. However, Kristina is feeling really strange with her new identity as an A-positive person. By the way, I’m apparently A-negative…it was about time I got around to figuring that out.

Christopher