16 August 2011

Mid-morning, I get another call from Dr. T's office. It's her nurse and she tells me again what Dr. T called about the night before. But this time she gives me the breast surgeon's number and tells me to call them so I do.

Have you ever had to tell a receptionist in a calm voice that you were just diagnosed with cancer and so you need a consultation with the surgeon? It's not as easy as it sounds. Like, without bursting into tears, that is. But I assume they deal with that kind of thing a lot. I let them know my doctor wanted me to see the surgeon THIS WEEK. Like that really matters. They are a cancer practice so every case is an emergency and everybody needs to see the surgeon this week. I get an appointment a day and a half out. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? What's wrong with this surgeon that she's not booked?

I'm not really that worried about it, it's just an initial consult and if I'm not happy I can find a different surgeon. Who am I kidding? I just want this thing out of my boob. If she brought out and ice pack and a ginsu knife tomorrow I'd tell her to go for it.
I need to make sure my mammograms and ultrasounds, as well at the pathology report make it to the surgeon's office for my appointment so I have to call the Breast Evaluation Center to make sure that gets done. Why does it take 5 phone calls? Because medical records suck. No offense to the hardworking file clerks out there, but HIPAA guidelines have seriously complicated their jobs to the point of near stagnation.

Word to my file clerk homies out there.

I tap into my support network, arrange a play date for the kids and shoot my husband an invite via google calendar. I got this.