National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.

Went in for the pre-op tests like they told me to. Now, you have to remember, this is simply to put in the port, they aren't removing a leg or transplanting a heart or something major organ, but this hospital required More pre-op tests than any hospital I've ever encountered before! Amazing. The form I rc'vd in the mail said to bring in all my meds in their original containers from the pharmacy. Between the back, the nerve damage, the chronic migraines, the Barret's esophagus, not sleeping, etc., this was a amajor undertaking.

But that's what they asked for, so I shlepped down all this stuff-- looked like I was planing on staying over for a month or two.

The nurse asked questions, had me fill out enough forms to endanger a major tropical rainforest. The anesthaesthesia (sp) guy came out, asked pretty much the same questions, with the same forms right in front of him. (Reaing them would have been WAY too much effort, I'd imagine. Luckily, he decided the chest x-ray I had for the lumpectomy was recent enough (3 weeks?) to go with that, anf last week's echo was still current to go with that. So on to the EKG. Now, even with the back surgery, which took over ten hours, nobody asked for one of these. It was just fine.

Now, none of the personnel today had ever run into an implanted pain pump, so I ended up having to educate them, one-by-one about that, which I seem to have to do everywhere I go, then I had to pee into a cup, and they were about through. The nurse asked if I had any questions.

I asked her why, since nobody had asked to see them, why they had asked me to drag all my meds down with me. She just looked sheepish. (I have six sheep at home, so I'm quite familiar with that look.)

I also asked, as the port surgery is Thrusday, when and where I had to report, and they said they would call between i and 4 tomorrow-- just another day stuck at home because they don't have their ducks in a row yet. How hard would it have been to give me a time today?

Sometimes I feel like the medical business believes you don't mind just putting your entire life on hold to accomodate them. Like our other lives aren't important, just our current ailments, which we'd all prefer to forget whenever possible, tho they won't allow us to, even for a moment, even if it's just being stuck at home an extra day waiting for a call aboout an appointment.

If I had anything to say about it, they'd get more organized, so in between appointments and treatments, you could just get along with your life and forget, for those moments, that you are a cancer patient. I believe it would be healthier for me to spent Wednesday getting in the meds and food I'll need the next few days, then shelving everything and waiting with baited breath for the phone to ring with the time, etc. of the port surgery. My last day of freedom before surgery suddenly lost by their whim.

The hospital in Bangor where I have my pain pump taken care of has all of their staff unionized, and before I leave from one appointment, I have a new appointment card for my next appointent right in my sweaty hand. In the waiting room there is a sign that says if you've been waiting longer than 10 minutes, to go back to the desk and complain. The entire hospital runs more smoothly. If they can do this, all hospitals can, whether unionized or not. It make so much more sense all the way across the board.

You'd think it'd be easier on their doctors and other employees, too. Back when I was in the gardening and landscape business, if I'd treated my customers this way, well, I'l tell you Thursday afternoon when I'll be there Friday, I'd have been out of business so fast...