First Trip to the New Medical Center....

As my friends who read this blog with any regularity know, I will be having a complete right knee replacement in early December.  I am looking forward to it with some dread and trepidation.  I have heard all sorts of stories, good and bad, about knee replacements.  I am praying that mine will be a good one.  But for now I am just getting my ducks in a row, having all of the pre-surgical testing that needs to be done.

My surgeon is part of the Lancaster Orthopedic Group, so I am traveling west into Lancaster County to see him.  I have had to go into Downingtown and into Lancaster for the tests to determine what is happening inside my knee and it has always been a pain in the butt to get any testing done because of living in Parkesburg.  Since moving here in 1976, if one needed to get X-Rays or any other kind of test, you had to drive at least 30 minutes or wait in the halls of local hospitals with paperwork on top of paperwork in order to get insurance to pay for it.

This year, a new building began to sprout on Route 10, across from Hershey Farm Market.  It took a month or so before signs began to appear revealing the facility as a Health Center connected to Lancaster General Hospital.  It opened in the last week or so.  It will be such a pleasure (if getting tests run can be a pleasure) to not have to drive for miles and miles to get anything done.

Not everything is up and running yet.  There were still workers putting finishing touches in areas.  There is dust from the wallboard being trimmed in various places as evidence of the ongoing progress to being finished.  But it was complete enough to be able to run all of the pre-surgical tests that I needed.

I had three appointments... one for blood work, one for an EKG and one for a chest X-Ray. There are two Kiosks in the lobby for self check-in.  The receptionist was very helpful as I was walked though what I needed to do.  I would imagine that as the place get busier, there will be lines at the kiosks.  Once done, I waited for the lab lady to come and get me.

A beautiful, young lady appeared and took me back to the lab.  It took her longer to input the required tests than it should have, but I am sure that there is a learning curve to using the computer system.  But she kept at it, chatting with me the entire time.  She was a tad frustrated with my veins.  I had warned her that I am hard to give up my blood.  She said she prided herself as the one who could get blood when other techs could not.  I proved to be every bit the difficult 'stick'.  I left the lab with bandages on both arms, but she did get the needed fluid in just two tries.

She was also the tech who administered the EKG.  This one went much faster.  I have no idea what the tests will reveal, but they are being run and will appear when my surgeon looks at them before removing my old, worn out knee.

I crossed the empty lobby and rode the elevator to the second floor.  There I was greeted by the X-Ray tech who showed me to a room to take my upper garments off for a chest X-Ray.  The changing room had a single hook on the back of the door.  No bench and no place to put anything else down either.  I am hoping that those items are just among the missing items that will find their way into the rooms shortly.  I was given the chest X-Ray, two views, and taken back to the bare room to get into my clothes.

I am sure, as the Parkesburg folks find out what can be doen there, the place will be a beehive of activity.  There is an Urgent Care center.  Besides the services that I had, they can do Ultrasounds, Dexa scans, MRIs, and all manner of Cardio testing.  There will be a Women's center, Physical Therapy, a cardiac unit and in the future, a Diabetes center and Orthopedic and Neurology center.

I am grateful for the new facility.  The service today was outstanding.  It will, hopefully, stay that way.