Monthly Archives: August 2016

Neither a Bug Nor a Feature

Well, I should have just gone ahead and eaten something.

Yesterday I mentioned that my company had made a mistake by scheduling a barium test rather than a GI camera test. Turns out that wasn’t a bug, it was a feature.

It also makes me wonder how concerned they actually are about my health. Since I already know they are not, in fact, concerned about my health beyond “are you physically capable of turning up for work” all I’m left with is a belief that this was an actual attempt to harm me.

The health check scheduler dismissed what I though was a mistake with “well, the GI camera test costs extra but you can totally pay for one yourself if you want one and we’ll totally schedule it for you.”

This means I could have eaten something or could have just waived the exam at the start of the process and insisted they send me to a nearby clinic. Since the nature of the exam seems to change from year to year, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to to that next year.

I’ll save this year’s emails and roll them out next year. Mind you, I already know what the response will be: that was then, this is now. A year later then will be now as things change again. This will happen even if the health check scheduler doesn’t change.

Either way, I’ve got two weeks to wait before I see if I’m actually healthy or not. Not that anyone actually cares.

Poked Prodded Scanned Cancelled

Today, I cancelled part of my own health check because I’d already refused it.

Several years ago the company I work for locked its management behind security doors. Since then, there’s a been a slow drift toward a corporate culture that excludes things like “rank and file employees who actually bring in the money” and “making notes” and “listening”. (not necessarily in that order).

Last year, I was informed I had to go to a health check on a day I was supposed to teach classes. I was also informed that I’d be expected to take a barium swallow GI test and then go to school. I suggested to the scheduler that this was a bad idea and after several emails and calls ended up with a camera shoved down my throat.

This year they wanted me to miss class again and after several emails I ended up with a health check scheduled for today. When I arrived I discovered that I was scheduled for the barium swallow and quickly cancelled it.

Luckily there was good news. My blood pressure and weight were good, but I still don’t understand how a couple taps and checks from a doctor count as having been checked by a doctor. (Granted, it does count as having been SEEN by a doctor).

After I got home I contacted the company I work for about the cancelled test. I’ll be interested to see what happens.

Forms and Fitness

Just spent part of the evening filling the paper work for my mandatory annual physical.

This normally wouldn’t bother me except that I seem to have to do it every year because the company I work for seems to send me to a different clinic every year which means I can’t use the medical history from the year before. I suspect they are either chasing discounted prices or are forgetful.

I suspect the latter because, for three years in a row now, they’ve scheduled health checks for the last few days of the term. It then follows that I point out that I will be missing a number of last classes, depriving my students of vital information about the exams.

This year that was met by the email equivalent of a huff and sigh and then two weeks of waiting while they found a date. This is an improvement, though, over last year, when they expected my colleague to cover for me in the morning and then expected me to go back to school after having a barium test.

I told them “no way” (full disclosure: the language used was actually, um, more colorful and profane than that) unless someone at the office got a barium test in the morning and then go back to work in the afternoon.

Tomorrow I’m supposed to get a tube down the throat again, but they sent me form about the barium test.

Tomorrow might be kind of interesting.