Healthcare

Warning: this is a rant in which I use fake profanity, and the occasional "damn" and "pissed off" and "hell". Sorry for my lack of usual discretion. I will return to the normal nonsensical dribble about knitting and 2-year-olds shortly.

After the last three weeks or so trying to get I-131 "therapy" scheduled, and dealing an unrelated urgent medical need, I think I've decided I'm all for a single payer healthcare system or something. It sure as heck has to beat what we've got.

No, it's not that an in imminent danger of being kicked out of my insurance coverage or something like that. It's just the inability to get information out of people or get things done, or receive a phone call back. I know doctor's offices are busy places, but I'm trying to get treated for cancer (albeit a not terribly serious kind) so I can have my life back, and get off the medical crazy train I'm on. Yes, I will leave you the xxxx alone, if you do your xxxxing job, and coordinate my damn medical care. And if someone could have just come out and said it might take 3 weeks to get a date (yes, to schedule the procedure, which has to be scheduled at least 4-6 weeks in advance anyway, not actually have the procedure) it would have made me feel a whole hellofalot better. Just knowing a reasonable time frame to expect that you might be able to work out whatever it is you need to work out. And then I probably would have left you alone as well.

Instead nobody bothers to tell me what is going on. All I get is the impression that my file is literally sitting on some physician's desk waiting for her to get around to it. All you needed to do was tell me that you were waiting for a response from my doctor, and I could have gotten on the phone to my doctor and annoyed the hell out of their office until they answered the physician's question. Or you could have asked me and I would have clued you in the fact that I was pretty much decided on going withdrawl over Thyrogen stimulated therapy 'cause I feel based on my own research that although an annoyance, the withdrawl is probably a little better than Thyrogen and a don't want to go through this more than once (thank you very much!!!!!). And yes I do understand that it makes said physician's life slightly more difficult b/c the scheduling is harder. Sorry.

The end result is that I ended up going to a 2nd doctor, who the surgeon recommended, who deals with this hospital all the time, and I think they are going to set this up, and then I will follow up with my old doctor, because a generally like him, even if his office is incompetent and slow as molasses. I hope I haven't pissed anyone off too much by doing this.

I feel like I'm cheating on my endocrinologist. Yes, somewhere amoungst the feelings of indignation and frustration I also feel guilty.

And I don't even have a date yet.