So she sent me off to get some chest x-rays, and I’m getting some lab workups done tomorrow morning (man, I’m going to be cranky after not eating for 12 hours). But the real way to tell what’s going on is to get an EKG. Sadly, with the crappy grad student health insurance, that EKG is going to cost me $200. Awesome. It’s probably not a big deal, but it’s not like I need anything else causing me stress and anxiety these days.
Fast forward to dinner tonight with a good friend. I was telling her about all this, and about how I don’t really have $200 to spend on something that probably amounts to nothing, when she looks at me and says, “I do EKGs all the time for patients at work. I’ll do one for you if you want me to.” I’m sure that’s breaking all sorts of rules and whatnot, but it really sort of touched me.
And made me laugh, to think how the perks of friendship have evolved with our careers. In high school and college, you have friends who work at restaurants and movie theaters and hook you up with free drinks or movies. Now, I have bartender friends (more free drinks), bouncer friends (free shows), musician friends (more free shows, plus T-shirts and CDs), and doctor friends (woohoo free EKG!).
Life is weird like that. Wish I had something more to offer than just photo services sometimes 🙂
Edit: Scratch that, about the EKG. Got one this morning. It’s the echocardiogram that costs $200. Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone that can hook me up with a free one of those…