And I thought I had some “pull” at our hospital as the transplant manager…pffft.
Despite the great clinical recommendation and notes from my physician, I could not find one #!#%!# ENT Physician at my hospital who would write me an order for a 3D CT Scan with Contrast…grrrr.
So…I used one of my bazillion sick days and drove to Seattle today for my appointment tomorrow, where they supposedly are going to order the appropriate scan and view it with me at The University of Washington. (ironically, they are our competitor for heart transplants…ha)
So…here I am, in the Hotel, waiting for my clinic visit tomorrow.
Will keep you posted. On the bright side, I am not in OUR clinic tomorrow, dealing with OUR docs and OUR patients…ha.
That's where I was just seen for ES. Did a CT on Monday and scheduled my surgery afterward.
I'd never heard of ES until then and I've had face pain for 2 years and surgery for it. I went through Swedish, Northwest, now I'm at UW. I'd say it's the right place...
Though this is an important milestone for you, just try to relax a bit tonight. As someone who lives next to the sea, I can tell you from experience, that a long walk along the seawall will do wonders to center your emotions and the fresh sea air will help you sleep soundly tonight.
Tomorrow, you can be the coolheaded medical professional that you are. That should get you better results with the doctors, than an anxious "patient" will. If not, I'll call Rocco & Guido and tell them to go have a "chat" with them. :D
Ha.....good advice Pill. Well, I should have known better than to get my hopes too high as I have been in the medical field for 20+ years.
I met with the Physician this morning and she was wonderful! She spent an hour and a half with me, went over my past scans and best of all......stuck a small camera through my nostril all the way down to my vocal cords. In terms of enjoyment, I would rate it a notch under sex but barely beating out good Haagen Daz Ice Cream :o) ha
Now the bad news.....which I somewhat expected before heading over. Their physician(s) would not order a 3D CT Scan with contrast until they saw me in clinic. (which does make sense to me)
So......after seeing me, she wants to order the 3D CT Scan with Contrast. So their scheduler finds out that my Jack Ass Insurance Company needs 48 hours to do a pre-authorization on any scans...grrrr. So, I get a hand-written order from the physician that I will hand carry back to my hospital and get the scan done where I wanted it done in the first place. (Isn't that just FU#### lovely) Then, I will mail these scans to the University of Washington to read and interpret. All in all, it was a very fun and productive day.......sarcasm alert !!! Will keep you guys posted......I need a sip of some good bourbon that I have been saving for a night like this.
That is progress. You at least will have the scan completed. You should know nothing in the medical field and test taking is ever fast. Hang in there and keep pushing your way through.
Dont get discouraged, your experience sounds like so many of the rest of ours. Keep pushing forward to get the answers you need, one step at a time. At least you are moving forward!
48 hours is good for pre authorization. I've had to wait more than 3 weeks, usually 2 weeks... One time they claimed the forms were "smeared" and just ignored the faxed request until a week had passed and my doctor called them to see what was up.