The Story As I Know It

Now that I’ve had 1) a good cry and 2) a good rest, here’s what I know of the Great Neurosurgeon Drama of 2010:

- The Neurosurgeon wanted Greg to have an MRA done and the results sent over to him in both electronic and non-electronic formats. That was on the 17th at our local hospital.
- We waited for either The Neurosurgeon or Local Hospital to say “we have the results” or “we need the results.”
- We eventually waited until last Friday (the 25th), then called The Neurosurgeon’s Nurse. Nurse said they had received no results from Local Hospital. I called Local Hospital and they said that they were so busy that they didn’t have time to get the results out but they would push Greg to the top of the stack (of results that needed to be processed) and that they would get the electronic results to The Neurosurgeon by the end of Friday. Rad.
- Yesterday we had heard STILL nothing, so I called The Neurosurgeon’s Nurse to figure out WHAT is going on. She said they needed a physical copy of the MRA before they could schedule Greg’s appointment. She had been watching the mail and no disc had come in. She said she had called Local Hospital to figure out what was going on but (I’m assuming) never was able to talk to a live person.

Here’s where it gets fun:
- I called Local Hospital yesterday and asked them what the heck was going on. A person (let’s call her “June”) called me back saying that Local Hospital had sent a physical copy of the results and that they had the carrier receipt saying it was delivered – on June 25th. The person who sent them (not June) sent them to the address of The Hospital the Neurosurgeon Works At as opposed to his office. June said that SHE would call The Neurosurgeon’s Office and talk; and she would call me back.
- I also called The Neurosurgeon’s Office and left a voicemail, saying that there was physical copy of the results at the Hospital, so let’s schedule the appointment. That was around 10am yesterday.
- At noon, June called me back to see if I had heard anything from The Neurosurgeon’s Office. Nope. She then went on to say that she herself had sent over a physical copy of the results, as did her director. SO now there are at least THREE PHYSICAL COPIES over there. I don’t know if they have carrier receipts for the other two (I’m pretty sure they do though). The Neurosurgeon’s Office has seen none of them. BUT June said that she had sent her copy directly to his office. Hmmmmm.
- At 1pm, Greg called and left a voicemail for The Neurosurgeon’s Nurse saying basically the same thing I did.
- At 5:25pm, I called The Neurosurgeon’s Hospital, asking to talk to him (as NO ONE called me or Greg back yesterday). The person was very rude saying I needed to call back during business hours and that he wasn’t on-call. I told her what was going on – that I had been calling during business hours but no one would call me back. The Hospital sent me to their scheduling desk, where I got another voicemail; reiterating that no appointments can be made without all the stuff from the referring physician. Grrrr.
- Not long after that I had a complete emotional breakdown and called The Neurosurgeon’s Nurse and left yet another voicemail asking WHY we had to keep waiting for an appointment when Local Hospital sent everything over, and that the physical copy of the MRA is over at The Neurosurgeon’s Hospital. I’m not proud to say that I was crying when I left the voicemail, but I seriously had had it. After that, I spent the entire evening until I went to bed with a gigantic stress-induced stomachache.

The questions as of last night:

- We know that at least one physical copy of Greg’s MRA report made it to the Neurosurgeon’s Hospital. Where is it? Considering that’s medical information; losing that is NOT A GOOD THING. And where are the other copies that the Local Hospital says they sent? Again, it’s medical information that shouldn’t be lost – thank God it’s just an MRA and nothing more sensitive, but still. I’m hesitant to believe that the other copies were sent unless they have a carrier receipt for them. :X
- Why do WE have to wait for them to find the report when it’s not our fault that they got sent to the Hospital as opposed to the Office. It’s not like the Hospital and the Office are that far apart (according to the addresses, they are practically RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from one another).
- At what point do we just try and find a different neurosurgeon to help Greg? We can’t just keep doing this.

Hopefully today will yield some results. But I’m not really counting on it.