Turkey

Well, I am finally cleared for surgery Monday, July 29th.  And by clear I mean it was touch and go for a bit this past week.  From what Bill and I understood, all was set for the 29th.  Then I get a call saying that Dr. Garcia didn't realize that I didn't have the right MRI for my surgery.  Huh?  I needed a Stealth Navigation MRI.  Does that mean I am getting a car?  I know, a lot of you don't even know what a Stealth is.  It's a Dodge Stealth.  Look it up.

Anyway, a Stealth MRI is a MRI that takes pictures 1 milliliter level at a time.  This makes it easier for the surgeon to read during surgery.  A regular MRI takes pictures 5 milliliter levels at a time.  So I find this out Thursday.  The surgeons office was able to get me an appointment for this special MRI on Friday.  And oh by the way, you have to be at the ORMC (hospital) at 6:30 AM for a 7 AM appointment.  So we don't have much choice as surgery is Monday.  And as you know, I will have to take an Ativan because of being claustrophobic.  All that is great but the Ativan usually knocks me out the rest of the day and we have a pre admission testing appointment at 1 PM Friday.

Got through the Stealth MRI, came home and rested a bit and back on the road to my pre admission appointment.  About ready to get out of the car and I get a call from Debra from Dr. Garcia's office.  She is telling me that surgery can't go on because the hospital called saying that my insurance company has not approved my surgery.  Wait, it's the Friday before my surgery and I am just getting this call.  My PCP's office had told me and Debra that I didn't need an approval as I have a PPO.  Apparently they were wrong.  So I am on the phone to my PCP's office while walking in to my pre admission appointment.  And Debra informed me that she was leaving at 3 that day and needed the approval before she left.   Finally, while waiting on our appointment to start, we got this all straightened out.  Please nothing else.

But we then waited 1 hour in a room for our nurse to come in to do her thing.  We were at the point that we wanted to walk out.  Bill finally opened the door to our room in case they just forgot we were there.  Finally, nurse Nadine came in.  Well, this woman needed an attitude adjustment.  Came in, no hello, tossing papers down on the desk, then shuffling them here and there.  Throwing questions at me about medical clearance, labs, EKG, just on and on. Information that was to be faxed to them from Dr. Garcia's office and I know it was.  It got to the point that Bill finally just got up and left.  She said she need to draw labs to test for my blood type.  Drew 5 vials and only needed 2.  On the phone to my PCP's office.  Just plain rude.  Finally got through that and gathered up Bill in the waiting room and headed home.  I don't know what kept me from it but the tears were about ready to flow.  We will find out where we can make a complaint.

Finally home where we knew we were going to have Kerri, Ana, Kristi, Sasha and Ellie here for a spaghetti dinner.  Thank you Kerri for being my cook that day.  Was nice to be surrounded by our girls.

And today, we had crab legs at Kristi and Matt's.  15 lbs for me, Mom, Kristi, Kerri and Sasha.  And we ate most of them.  The rest of them had chicken and mac and cheese.

All this because I will be going for surgery on my head to remove this plasmacytoma tumor on Monday, July 29th.  All this because I wanted to have family time with as many as I could before surgery.  Would have loved to have Paul, Jakob, Kristopher, Leah, Chad and Layton here too.  I know all will be fine but I needed them here; as many as I could!  And I am here to say, I am scared.

So the MRI tech explained what the difference was between the regular MRI and the Stealth MRI and the two levels.  Then he said, it's like when you get turkey from the deli, either thin sliced or thick sliced. Made sense then.

Quote:

Someone said I don't know how you do it.  I said I wasn't given a choice.