I am not clairvoyant. Oh sure, I’ve had my moments of intuition, but outright extra sensory perception eludes me. Strangely, I married a woman who is also not clairvoyant. We feel bad about this because it is becoming increasingly clear that everyone else in the world has the ability to read minds; to see deep into the future.

Several months back, I sat in my family physician’s office getting the results of some blood work I’d had done a week or so earlier. For the most part, the results were good, but the physician and I were both dismayed at my high fasting-glucose levels. He because the levels might indicate the onset of diabetes; I because no one had told me I needed to fast before having my blood work done. Upon being told that my blood glucose wasn’t a fasting level, my physician was happier with the levels but annoyed that the test was useless.

More recently, my wife was given a referral to an allergist by her new family physician. On a whim—maybe she does have some ESP skills—my wife decided to phone the allergist’s office to see if she needed to prepare for the tests. She was told to make sure she stopped taking her antihistamines 48 hours before her visit. Phew, that was a close one.

These two incidences—and a history of others like them—have prompted this request to the medical community: Please do not discriminate against we feeble few without clairvoyant capabilities.

I know you folks are very busy, but when prescribing tests for patients, please take a moment or two to let us know what we need to do—and apparently, not do—to prepare for the test. Forgive us our disabilities. We do not aim to waste your time, even if our lack of medical mind-reading skills would seem to make it so.