I get this question a lot. Here's the answer.Picture me at home, peacefully working at my desk.
Phone: Ring Ring.
Me: Hello!
Voice: Hi, this is McKay Dee Hospital. We're calling to schedule your surgery for next week.
Me: ....
Voice: Hello?
Me: Surgery for WHAT?
Voice: Ummm ... err ..... ummm .... Hasn't your doctor called you yet?
Me (voice escalating): What would my doctor call me about???????
Voice: Well, er.... your mammogram results.
Me (working up to a combo yell/shriek): MY MAMMOGRAM RESULTS!?!?!?!? WHAT ABOUT THEM?!?!?!?!? WHY DO I NEED SURGERY?!?!?! WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!?!?!?!
(This would be my first, but not my last, encounter with icy-cold fear running rampant through my veins - the kind that dumps in when you intuitively know that the news is not good.)
Voice: Er ... we need you to call your doctor and then call us back. Click.
That's how I found out I had cancer. Pretty 1950's eh? I felt bad for the voice because that must have been awkward to say the least. I called my doctor at the speed of light. I was told, "She is in a meeting and is not to be disturbed."
I said, "DISTURB HER. NOW."
They wouldn't. I was told to call back in 2 hours. I waited. Called back in 2 hours.
"She's still in a meeting, call back tomorrow." Compassion is not dead, it's just completely absent in Utah. Trust me, this is true.
Then I said some choice items that are not repeatable here. Later that day, the doctor found some spare time to call me and to confirm that I did indeed have cancer.
Some days are worse than others. That was a bad one.
Loves to all - Jen
3 comments:
love your blog, oh how did I find out? a blood test, a dr saying I needed to get to the oncologist soon!, a blood test again, a bone marrow biopsy..crying, trying to cope with the implications, then the onc ass*istant, pops her evil head in and says "suprised?" like I was getting Punked or something. WTF
compassion
a missing in action emotion
love deb
argh! these stories are terrible. i can absolutely relate. sometimes i want to set the entire health care system on fire and burn it to the ground.
Here's when I found out I needed brain surgery: http://thelizarmy.blogspot.com/2008/09/relax-liz_12.html.
I had to have surgery before we could get a piece to biopsy to find that I have cancer.
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