We met Christin, who works in the surgeon's office at the 17th St building. She was quite thorough and nice, asked a lot of the same questions that the others have asked. However, she was not aware that Redjeb had had the carotid artery x-ray or whatever last week. Huumm.
Then she sent us over to the hospital on 16th St. for what we thought was to meet with the anesthesiologist. However, after waiting a long time, a tech came out and wanted to take Redjeb in for some blood work and a lung x-ray. Redjeb informed him that he'd had all that done last week at the 34th St center. His cardiologist (Virzi) had said to have the tests done there, and it would save him time later. Ha ha.
When I asked about the anesthesiologist we were met with blank stares.
So I called Christin back. She explained that they liked to do their own tests at the hospital, and they didn't have the ones from 34th Street. Sorry. End of that. Insurance company be damned, I guess. She also said they'd see that the anesthesiologist talked to us. So in went Redjeb for some more blood work.
When when he came back he said that the anesthesiologist had called on the phone, and they spoke briefly. Redjeb told him about some of his specific issues, but forgot about the carotid artery test. So I made another phone call to Christin as we'd been told to be sure to tell him about that x-ray or CAT scan, and also to give him some papers that we had. Not to worry she said. All would be in the chart. OK.
Then we had to go to another floor so R could take the lung x-ray-again. There we had to wait forever.
As much as I like the people we have been dealing with, the communication in their system is sorely lacking.
Then to make a lousy day lousier, we were given the news that the surgeon would like to do a by-pass in addition to the valve replacement. Apparently he doesn't like the looks of one of the partially blocked arteries (or veins or whatever) that he saw from the angiogram, and figures while in there he may as well take care of it. He won't know till he get inside and takes a look. So that will mean longer under anesthesia, though recovery is supposed to be the same.
We had been hoping to take the bus to East Hampton this afternoon, but by this time we were well into the afternoon, tired, not yet having had lunch (I had forgotten to eat my English Muffin when we ran out of the apartment this morning, but had grabbed a donut from the street vendor--not a cool thing to do when hanging around cardiac offices). So guess we we'll have to go to East Hampton tomorrow Wed and spend Thanksgiving out there. Made a reservation at a French restaurant in Bridgehampton for our "traditional Thanksgiving dinner." Good compromise: France for Redjeb and turkey for me!
If you made it this far, I apologize for my complaining. We are both actually doing quite well. Just taking it easy.
1 comment:
I'm glad to hear that you are getting out to Easthampton for Thanksgiving. The fresh air and the homey feeling will probably do you both a lot of good. I don't know if this is possible, but you might designate Easthampton to be a "worry-free zone."
Post a Comment