Sunday, November 9, 2014

This Isn't a Hangnail. Make up your d...minds what kind of mammogram I'm getting (a rant)

This has been way more phone calls than radiation and lumpectomy combined!  Thank Heaven I'm supposedly cured.  If I were working, I'd get fired for being on the phone.

"You need an order that says Diagnostic. If there's a code it will probably be OK.  No you don't  You need an order that says breast cancer.  No, you don't because there's a code on your order.  If you don't have it, you'll get a regular screening mammogram and the results won't be ready 2 days later when you see the doctor."

How is it that no one in the oncologist's office has never experienced these conflicting hospital rules.

This is after three non-returned calls from the hospital, just to get even a tentative appointment! (Turns out the local appointments person had been gone for a week.  Don't know what happened after she got back, but it didn't happen for me.)

If I don't hear by the end of the day, I will email an Oncology Nurse Navigator I've met.  See if she can straighten this out so I can make my other medical appointments and have a life off the phone. PS  Nurse navigator did not reply to e-mail. 

Finally the only hospital person whose name I know assured me that I'm down now for the correct mammo based on the code.  She is always patient; mentioned without scolding me that some of the women in the breast center are new.  Also, out of a clear blue sky, she said I'm on diagnostic mammos for 2 years.  Funny no doctor ever mentioned that to me. . .

   Please let me believe the mammo tech will not be a new one.  I admit I'm lucky that they have this new campus in my area.

I have to learn to ask every person on the phone: "Please tell me your name."  Then write it down. Maybe that will encourage them to go and ask someone who knows.

The Bottom Line:  It's up to me to check firmly once more before she gets hold of my breast that I need the diagnostic mammo! My responsibility.

I wish you health, and a friend at the hospital.

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