Bureaucratic Bullshit
Aug. 31st, 2006 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morrigirlYou won't believe this. No, actually, you will believe it. Not only will you believe it, you'll probably consider it a boringly typical example of bureaucratic bullshit.
When I was discharged from the ER Monday night I was told two things. First, that I should get a referral to an ENT specialist from my doctor ASAP and I should arrange an emergency office visit no more than 48 hours after my time of discharge. Second, that I should call the ER in two days to get the results of my mono test.
I spent all day Tuesday leaving messages at my GP's office asking for an emergency ENT referral. As of 9:00 AM yesterday morning, over 36 hours since my discharge from the ER, I still did not have a referral. Yesterday I had a gynocologists appointment at 11:00 AM so I got myself up and went to that. There, everything was kosher, and Dr. Marin felt so bad for me SHE gave me a fucking ENT referral!!!
When I get out of the gynocologists office I have a message on my cellphone. It's my GP's office finally calling with an ENT referral. Great. I go back to my mom's house, call the ENT my GP recommended and set up a 2:45 PM appointment. That gives me roughly and hour and a half before I have to be there. I figure I should have the results of my mono test (which I'm sure is negative) before I go to the appointment. So I call the ER at Roosevelt hospital. A woman answers the phone, I explain why I'm calling, and she tells me they never give out test results over the phone. I tell her I'm simply doing what the doctor on call told me to do. She says the doctor told me wrong. I ask her how I can get my test results. She says I have to submit a written request. I ask her how I might do that and she transfers me to the blood bank. I have the exact same exchange with the woman at the blood bank only at the end of it she transfers me to the patient follow up department. There, I have the exact same conversation again and get transferred to the office of medical records. By then I am frustrated and hysterical and the woman in medical records takes pity on me and transfers me to the department of patient representation. No one answers the phone in this office, so I leave a very long and detailed message pleading with whoever winds up listening to it to provide me with information on how I might obtain the results of my mono test.
By now, it's time for my ENT appointment. I walk over to the office where I find out that they do not take my insurence and I'm going to have to fork over a couple hundred bucks for this visit. Great. I am seen by this very cold, very curt doctor who sticks a long tube down my throat via my nasal passage. She says I look fine aside from some slightly swollen tonsils. She says it's probably tonsilitis and we can do one of two things about it. She can just send me on my way and hope my already damaged immune system kills the infection, or she can give me some antibiotics to help them along. I ask for the antibiotics. I take the script and go straight to the closest pharmacy to get it filled.
Then I notice there are two new voicemail messages on my phone. One is from a woman in the patient representation office at Roosevelt. She assures me she is doing everything in her power to get my test results to me. The second message is from a nurse in the ER saying that she has the results of my mono test and they are positive. I am mildly shocked. Not just because I actually GOT the friggin results, but because they are positive. I have never had mono. I don't know anything about it. I call the ENT back and tell her I have mono and ask if it changes my treatment options. She says "Oh, then don't take the antibiotics, and drink lots of fluids." *click* So, now I start crying because even though I know what I have, I don't know what to do about it. So, I call my GP and make an appointment to come in immediately. I go in, tell her what I have, and start asking questions. She tells me I'm not contagious, she tells me I can go to work if I feel up to it, tells me rest is the best and only medicine for mono. I go home and promptly go to bed.
So now we know, on top of every. fucking. other. thing my immune system is currently fighting, it is also dealing with mono. I don't know how much worse things can get. Yes, I do. Cancer. AIDS. That's how worse things could get. I know it's unlikely that I have or will get either disease, but...I've already contracted three different conditions this summer that I never thought could happen to me. Anything is possible.
When I was discharged from the ER Monday night I was told two things. First, that I should get a referral to an ENT specialist from my doctor ASAP and I should arrange an emergency office visit no more than 48 hours after my time of discharge. Second, that I should call the ER in two days to get the results of my mono test.
I spent all day Tuesday leaving messages at my GP's office asking for an emergency ENT referral. As of 9:00 AM yesterday morning, over 36 hours since my discharge from the ER, I still did not have a referral. Yesterday I had a gynocologists appointment at 11:00 AM so I got myself up and went to that. There, everything was kosher, and Dr. Marin felt so bad for me SHE gave me a fucking ENT referral!!!
When I get out of the gynocologists office I have a message on my cellphone. It's my GP's office finally calling with an ENT referral. Great. I go back to my mom's house, call the ENT my GP recommended and set up a 2:45 PM appointment. That gives me roughly and hour and a half before I have to be there. I figure I should have the results of my mono test (which I'm sure is negative) before I go to the appointment. So I call the ER at Roosevelt hospital. A woman answers the phone, I explain why I'm calling, and she tells me they never give out test results over the phone. I tell her I'm simply doing what the doctor on call told me to do. She says the doctor told me wrong. I ask her how I can get my test results. She says I have to submit a written request. I ask her how I might do that and she transfers me to the blood bank. I have the exact same exchange with the woman at the blood bank only at the end of it she transfers me to the patient follow up department. There, I have the exact same conversation again and get transferred to the office of medical records. By then I am frustrated and hysterical and the woman in medical records takes pity on me and transfers me to the department of patient representation. No one answers the phone in this office, so I leave a very long and detailed message pleading with whoever winds up listening to it to provide me with information on how I might obtain the results of my mono test.
By now, it's time for my ENT appointment. I walk over to the office where I find out that they do not take my insurence and I'm going to have to fork over a couple hundred bucks for this visit. Great. I am seen by this very cold, very curt doctor who sticks a long tube down my throat via my nasal passage. She says I look fine aside from some slightly swollen tonsils. She says it's probably tonsilitis and we can do one of two things about it. She can just send me on my way and hope my already damaged immune system kills the infection, or she can give me some antibiotics to help them along. I ask for the antibiotics. I take the script and go straight to the closest pharmacy to get it filled.
Then I notice there are two new voicemail messages on my phone. One is from a woman in the patient representation office at Roosevelt. She assures me she is doing everything in her power to get my test results to me. The second message is from a nurse in the ER saying that she has the results of my mono test and they are positive. I am mildly shocked. Not just because I actually GOT the friggin results, but because they are positive. I have never had mono. I don't know anything about it. I call the ENT back and tell her I have mono and ask if it changes my treatment options. She says "Oh, then don't take the antibiotics, and drink lots of fluids." *click* So, now I start crying because even though I know what I have, I don't know what to do about it. So, I call my GP and make an appointment to come in immediately. I go in, tell her what I have, and start asking questions. She tells me I'm not contagious, she tells me I can go to work if I feel up to it, tells me rest is the best and only medicine for mono. I go home and promptly go to bed.
So now we know, on top of every. fucking. other. thing my immune system is currently fighting, it is also dealing with mono. I don't know how much worse things can get. Yes, I do. Cancer. AIDS. That's how worse things could get. I know it's unlikely that I have or will get either disease, but...I've already contracted three different conditions this summer that I never thought could happen to me. Anything is possible.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 02:47 am (UTC)Thank you for the support, Gemma. I can't tell you how much little messages like this mean to me these days. It feels like my body is in a permanent state of decay and it's nice to know I'm not the only person in the world who cares. Yes, all mail can still be sent to my mother's address. Still no reliable mail delivery up in the Bronx.
Thanks again, Gemma.
I heart you.