NIH experience

[Guest guest]

I flew standby to Baltimore and was put in first class. I had a glass of Pinot

Grigio and before I knew it we were landing. Got off the plane and made my way

to the Super Shuttle which I had reserved since the NIH airport shuttle doesn't

run on Saturday's. I was the last drop off and then the NIH experience really

began. The Super Shuttle driver went to the Main Entrance which was locked.

(The whole place is locked, secured, gated, manned with it's own police staff,

very visibly). There was a sign to proceed to the South Entrance, so we did.

The guy at the gate (armed guard) said we had to go back out to get badges and

he had to get cleared through commercial vehicle inspection. I went through

Checkpoint Charlie (between East and West Germany prior to the fall of the

Berlin Wall) and it reminded me of that. After the dogs, the half dozen police

guards, etc had cleared the van and my ID, we were given our badges and went to

the South gate again. We were allowed through and he dropped me and my luggage

off at the Clinical Research Center. There was no one in sight. I saw a sign

at the information desk that directed me to admissions. It was quite a walk,

but I found it. There was a lady there (not another soul anywhere) and she

asked if she could help me? I told her my name and said I was here for

admission and she found me in her system, had me sign stuff, gave me an armband

and took me upstairs. Upstairs looks like a hospital. We went to the nurses

station and the nurse took me to my room. He said, first order your dinner and

handed me a menu and a phone. I quickly read the menu, called the number on the

menu and was put on hold for 13 minutes. (Order your meals early). I ordered a

spinach salad, you can put whatever you want on it and get whatever dressing you

want too. I also ordered a baked potato and steamed brocolli. The salad was

great. The baked potato must've been microwaved, it was weird and the brocolli

was too steamed and hospital tasting. I ordered the same salad for lunch today

with a grilled cheese (low fat, low sodium) sandwich and decided I might live on

spinach salads while I'm here. After the dinner stuff, I got checked in by

nursing staff; they went over my meds etc. and told me about the 24 hour urine

testing. The whole time you are here (7-10 days), you do the urine

testing...pee in a hat, transfer it to a jug, put jug in the specimin fridge in

your room. After that, it was vitals and uneventful.

I was awakened today at 5:30 or so; they took my vitals and told me to pee to

start the urine testing. Then, I saw 3 doctors all whom were various levels of

fellows and they all had consents to sign and histories to take; questions about

various aspects of my health and records. I was seen by a social worker and

screened for mental health issues. I was seen by a bio ethics person who wanted

to make sure I knew what I was consenting to, and understood the living will

documents. I am currently waiting on someone who is going to do an EKG. I had

to apply for a IT security screen to get a password for the internet and it took

all day today to process, but alas, I have it! I spent most of the day today

with all of that and had a lot of time to get some work done that I brought with

me. So, it was a pretty relaxing day and very informative.

If I can, I will post how tomorrow goes, etc. I won't get any results until

Thursday. Prior to Thurs, I will have done 4 days of 24 hour urine tests, tons

of bloodwork ( they are putting two lines in tomorrow am), saline supression

test, ct scan (with contrast), ekg, supine/upright renin/aldo, cardiac echo, US

of the kidneys, dopper carotids, glucose tolerance test, dirunal cortisol and

acth and an acth stim test. I am having more cardiac stuff too based on

something they are worried about from today as well, but not everyone would have

that. Then, I will know quite a bit of results and have a pow wow. Then we

decide what to do from there based on what they have. If necessary, I would have

the AVS on Friday. Then it would take a week to get those results, so I could

go home on Saturday or Sunday, then they call with the AVS results and we go

from there as far as surgery or whatever. I signed a thing today that I

understood that they would like me to come back in a year and repeat all of this

too, if I have something to follow. I don't have too, but they'd like it.

So, there you have it...my NIH experience thus far!