Meanwhile, I am diligently taking my hypertension medication, and my home BP kit lets me know that I am doing well on that front. It seems I really don’t suffer from high blood pressure – or is the medication doing its job?
By Tuesday, there is tracking info. The ETA is for Thursday. I shake my head. Wow. Three days in transit, to a neighboring state.
The next day, Wednesday the 23rd, after a day of hard rain, my parents are involved in a car accident. My mom calls me nonchalantly informing me. She says it’s not that bad, but the van is undrivable. I drive there in our pickup and my mom is taken to the hospital for evaluation. My dad is walking around, and refuses medical attention. I drive us to the RGR hospital. By this point, I convince my dad to get checked out, as he’s starting to complain about a pain in his chest. It must have been the steering wheel and/or the air bag. My mom is complaining of neck pain, but it was the seat belt and sudden stop that got her in a little pain. After x-rays, she’s good. Dad is good. They are advised to take pain killers, but are good to go. We spend four hours in the ER, and arrive home by 11:30 PM.
Good thing my cryoablation was cancelled, otherwise I would not have been able to be there for them. Thank God everyone is relatively unharmed. However, by 7 AM the next day, my dad’s pain is worse, and my mom takes him to our city’s hospital, Mission Regional. After a lot of confusion, a nurse tells dad he has a fractured left rib. It will be about 6 weeks before he’s back to 100%.
Tracking info shows the heart monitor test arrives at its destination at 8 AM on Thursday the 24th. I wait patiently for a call from the cardiologist office. It doesn’t come. I call them the following day, Friday. I am informed that the report usually takes 1 to 2 weeks to ‘come in.’ What? My surgery is in 5 days. I don’t have time for this standard report delivery.
If I don’t get clearance, I can’t get this destructive kidney out of my body. This clearance assures the urologist, and the anesthesiologist that I am fit for surgery, and that I will probably not have any heart complications during the procedure. It’s very important we all know that I am fit for surgery. This is very frustrating. Could this be another strike? I feel like I am throwing them around, left and right.
Our Faith is being tested. I just know it. But like Job from the bible, we persevere.
Monday the 28th comes, and I get another call from my urologist office. They say if I don’t pick up the orders by today, the surgery will be cancelled. (Read, if I don’t pay for it, they will cancel it.) I tell them that I don’t have my clearance yet. The woman is at a loss. She doesn’t know what to say. She just ends up repeating herself. Today is the last day to pay my co-insurance, I mean, pick up the surgery orders.
I call the cardiologist again. They start to reiterate that standard procedure is 1 to 2 weeks for the report to come in. I inform her that my surgery is in 2 days. After a long hold time, she comes back with good news. The report is in! Thank the Lord Almighty. She says the doctor will review it later. I’m getting tired of hearing ‘later.’
Since my urologist’s office closes at 4:30 PM, I would like for the cardiologist to clear me by 3pm, if not sooner. She told me “Don’t worry, I’ll tell him about it as soon as he gets in.” However, 3 PM comes and no call. I call back and now she tells me that the doctor has patients today until 4:30, and will review my report at that time. She also states the doctor doesn’t want any messages given to him until 4:30. Grr!
Strike eight for lying to me.
I have no choice, but to pick up my surgery orders. But I have a conundrum. If I go through with the procedure, and I have not been cleared for surgery, what happens then? If all goes well, then the issue is moot. However, if something happens to me, then me or my mother can sue, right? But I don’t want that to even remotely happen. That’s almost a morbid thought.
If I don’t get this tumor out of me, I’m probably in deep trouble anyway. Who knows when it would be re-scheduled? After a quick prayer, and speaking with my parent’s pastor (who was available) I decide to go through with it. My mom takes me to the medical area, and I pick up the orders, pre-pay my co-insurance.
Later, the urologist’s office calls me to say that the doctor needs to have a copy of the CT scan from the other hospital; the same one that I gave to the radiologist a couple weeks prior. She states that even though Dr Adamu works closely with RGR, and the RGR radiology department has my images, that he sometimes does not have access to that database. Again, the patient has the responsibility to get the doctor another copy of the images from the CT scan.
Also, why didn’t they tell me this while I was just there, picking up my orders? Well, luckily, I had asked for a personal copy when I went to the STHS hospital records department, and I didn’t have to go back to the medical area to get a new one. Should I consider this a strike? Maybe. But since I actually didn’t have to go anywhere, I’ll let it be. I inform the caller that I have a CD-ROM of the images in my possession, and she says great, you can come by tomorrow and drop it off, or hand it to the doctor on the day of surgery. I opted for day of surgery.
It’s the next day, Tuesday the 29th, and I now realize that I should have pre-registered at the RGR hospital sometime last week. I could have done it yesterday, right after picking up the orders, as the hospital was right across the street. That’s my bad for not reading the orders right away.
Here we go again, back to the medical area, to pre-register for my procedure for the next day. The registration department informs me that I should call “a day before” the surgery date, between 4 and 8 PM, to see what time I should come in. Today is the day before the surgery lady! Well, I go home and call in at 5 PM. My report time is 12 noon on the 30th. She tells me not to eat anything past 3 AM. Good to know lady. Thanks! For those who are keen enough, let me inform you that I did not have the CD-ROM with me; I was not able to deliver it to the clinic.