Tuesday, March 31, 2009

I can't Make This Stuff Up


Here it is laundry day again. Not much has changed since last week when I wrote. I am still tired - even more so now that it has been almost three weeks without using my sleep machine.
I saw my primary doctor yesterday for a nose wound check. I finished the antibiotics on Sunday and continue to use the antibiotic cream on the wound. Although it is healing and improving, it still looks awful. He wants to see me again next Monday to check it again.
My blood pressure was 141/62. They had misplaced my blood work results and had to call and get the lab to fax it over while I was there. Everything was good except the HDL (good cholesterol) was too low again. This prevented the doctor from taking me off of the niaspan. I was disappointed.
We discussed the difficulties I was having with the sleep doctor and he referred me to a different one.
Before I drove home, I called the current sleep doctor to cancel my appointment for today since I still have no mask and cannot use my machine. I had to leave a message. No one called me back concerning the lack of a mask and being unable to use my machine for almost three weeks.
This morning I called the new sleep doctor's office to make an appointment. I was nervous about doing this,not quite knowing how to handle switching doctors. The woman was very nice. She looked on her computer to see if they had my sleep test results, but said no, I would have to bring them with me. The first available appointment is April 23rd. He is away on vacation right now and in other offices until then. When I explained about not having a mask, she told me my primary doctor could order it for me. I told her a mask had been ordered two weeks ago. She suggested I call the medical supply company.
SO when we finished, I called the medical supply company. When I asked about the order, she said there was a problem - the mask had been ordered in size medium, but that mask only comes in small and large, which do I need. I guessed a large, since a previous mask I had was small and it did not work well for me. I asked if they had even called the doctor's office to straighten this out or just let the order sit there unfilled for a week? She said she did not realize there was a problem until I called and she would call the doctor's office for authorization of the new size mask. I am telling you I could not make this stuff up. Does anybody actually care about their job to do what needs to be done? It is life threatening situations this company deals with and yet that order was just sitting there for who knows how long unattended due to a problem no one noticed.
Next I called the hospital sleep center where I had my sleep tests done to ask how I can have copies of my tests sent to the new sleep doctor. When I told her who the doctor is, she said "He already has copies of all of the tests ever done here at the hospital". I explained what the woman told me when she looked on her computer. The hospital person said "He has the results. I walked them over to his office myself."
It is unbelievable to me the runarounds I get from every direction. I am tired. I am hungry all the time from being tired. I doze off at inappropriate times. I am not comfortable to drive at night because I fear I will fall asleep. I have no energy to get anything done, let alone have to deal with all of this stuff just to get medical help. I have been trying for twenty minutes to call the new sleep doctor's office back, but get a busy signal.
I finally got through. She insists they do NOT have copies of my tests, but promised she would deal with the lady from the hospital and get the results.
SO I have gone through the hoops and the ringer already today and it is only 10:30am. But have I really accomplished anything at all???

3 comments:

i am supergirl. said...

sucky :(
i hate it when ppl don't communicate with each other.
that's what the problem is with these ppl that you are having to deal with is that there is almost no communication between them.
don't they teach that in schools these days? to be a doctor, you go to school for years and years and yet don't learn how to communicate. i'd say thats a problem.

Unknown said...

I am a little bit more than upset by what I see... I can't let this continue. I am sure there is something I can do .. I hope..

Unknown said...

Unbelievable what you have to go through to get ONE thing accomplished even though the need is so obvious! I'm sorry you've had to endure so much. I will continue to pray. I am sure a lot of you lack of energy is due to not using your machine. What a terrible ordeal!