Tentative date

[cjsmith]

Gah. When I was at the doctor's Tuesday morning I asked the scheduling person to please give me a call at work when she knew about insurance requirements and could schedule me.

The phone message I got Tuesday afternoon said the surgeon was scheduling "mid-August". *sigh* I'm impatient, plus there's a HUGE pile of work starting in mid-August and I'd've loved to be healed up a bit by then...

Naturally I didn't get this message at work; she called me at home, which meant that by the time I listened to the message the doctor's office had closed for the day. So I called back Wednesday morning.

The person who does that scheduling doesn't work Wednesdays. (You ever get the feeling you're being deliberately stymied?)

So I called back Thursday morning (just now).

Because my surgery's an hour instead of a half hour (two feet instead of one?), she says she can't fit me in until SEPTEMBER.

By tomorrow I bet it would have been October. Gah. I feel like I'm in one of those places where people don't line up for something, they just make a big pile and elbow each other out of the way and whoever's nastiest gets served first. I don't know how to dig my elbows into other people over the phone.

She says she'll look through the schedule and see if there are any holes that can be rearranged a little (defragmentation!) so I can be squeezed in earlier. And I'm on the wait list for any cancellations.

So, for now, September 1.

Comments

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I hate phone tag with doctors. Didn't realize your surgery was going to be so quick (1 hour).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's not a lot to do and the structures she's touching are all very near the surface. I suspect the 1 hour is generous unless the surgeon is standing there watching me get started on anaesthesia! :-)

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

Well the last 2 surgeries I had (c-section, thyroid removal) were a bit more invasive than your foot surgery - so I guess I was overestimating.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, yours were definitely much bigger deals! :-)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I'm actually not surprised that what I'm sure is considered non-emergency surgery is scheduled that far out. My first hernia repair was a couple of months after I set it, and the second one was about the same. I don't know if it's a shortage of ORs, assistance staff, the surgeons' own schedules, or a combination of the above.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

Even my thyroid removal was scheduled 3 weeks ahead of time (1 week was the surgeon was on vacation, I preferred to be the first after vacation than the last one before it).

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I can see that. Makes me think of the end of the movie M*A*S*H:

Duke: "Hawkeye. We can go home. We got our travel orders."

Jones (to Hawkeye): "Do you mind if we get out of this kid's brain first?"

[abenn.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that you have to wait so long, but glad that there's something that can be done. I hope that the surgery fixes the problem once and for all! Because I'd like to go hiking and dancing with you. And airplane camping.

I have to be in the South Bay on Sunday to help a friend with her final pack and move... any chance you'll be around that evening? I'll probably have to be in the South Bay on a weekday next week also; perhaps the schedule would work out to see you that day, whenever it is. If I can get to where you work at the right time maybe we can have lunch.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Hiking and dancing and airplane camping, oh my! :-) I have to recognize that the nerve tumor is only part of the problem. BUT HEY, I'm glad to have PART of the problem addressed!

Sunday evening - I think so. Dinner?