Actually, I had the news yesterday but I was so busy finishing up this week’s strips last night that all I could do was fall into bed, exhausted, around 1am. Blogging was a brief afterthought as I fell asleep.
So. Anyway. Monday I started trying to find out which surgeon I’d been referred to so that I could follow-up with them in case they didn’t call me [fast enough]. Yes, I know, I’m pushy. I prefer to consider being my own best advocate. I started by calling my doctor’s office but had to leave a voicemail for the nurse (who is not my favorite, she has a very, um, unresponsive personality and doesn’t exactly exude energy) so I tried a different tack.
Based on the names of possible surgeons my doctor had mentioned on Friday, I looked them up in the Provider database for my HMO and found they all belonged to the same practice. Well, that made things seemingly simple so I called to see if they’d received my records yet. No dice. Another call (message) to the doctor’s office.
Tuesday morning, much to my surprise, I get a call from Nurse Naps-&-Walks that they’d sent my records to a different office entirely. No biggie, at least they’d been sent _somewhere_ on Friday so Tuesday was a totally appropriate follow-up day. Apparently they received them around 2pm Monday (so much for timely) and the scheduling nurse had left at noon, so she hadn’t gotten to me yet. BUT! She was not only positive about me taking the initiative (“rather than fall through the cracks” was her exact phrase) she got me in to see a surgeon in an hour!
After picking up the disc with my ultrasound images on it I headed over to the hospital. My doctor is a very nice redhead who actually seemed to know what the hell Carcinoid is and totally didn’t dismiss me (granted, I was nervous and stressing a bit so was full-on flushing, kinda makes the case that more believable when its sitting in front of you in technicolor, no?) as being over-cautious. To make a long story not any shorter, my surgery is scheduled for next Thursday, the 21st, and will be done in the regular OR rather than same-day-surgery to be better prepared in case anything goes flukey with the anesthesia, etc (a possibility due to the Carcinoid syndrome). She’s also planning to do a liver biopsy to investigate the potential fatty liver (I’m foie gras! lol) the ultrascan and the 2003 MRI reported.
It feels like a small yet very important victory.
The plan is that I’ll spend the one night in the hospital, just as a precaution, then spend the following week off of work, healing up. I have the vacation time to cover what sick time won’t so I don’t have to force myself to go back early if I’m not feeling up to it, and I should be right as rain in time for Dragon*Con. Mom asked me if I was nervous… No, not really. I mean, I’m not exactly looking _forward_ to it, but I was more nervous about trying to get it scheduled than anything else. Granted, I have a right to revise that stance come Wednesday 😉
Tags: gallbladderremoval, dealing with doctors