I am having a frustrating morning. Edward needs more bloodwork done, because his last batch of bloodwork was not great and may indicate that his Crohn’s Disease medications need adjusting. I’ve been trying to get this done since May 7th, and it is now May 16th. I think it is just one of those situations where a CLUSTER of things goes wrong one after another in a coincidental clump, but so far NONE of the mistakes are MINE, and so it is a little frustrating that I am the one who drove half an hour to a laboratory to which no lab paperwork had been faxed (or perhaps had been faxed but was then misplaced), and so the blood draw could not take place and we had to drive half an hour back home.
I HAD called the lab ahead of time to make sure the paperwork had arrived, but could only leave messages on their machine (each time after listening to an unskippable TWO-MINUTE outgoing message listing their hours, location, URL, appointment-making instructions, results-obtaining instructions, etc.), and they didn’t return my calls, so we didn’t have any choice but to just GO and HOPE. The lab orders have always been there before, despite the technician ALWAYS acting as if there is NO CHANCE of it. “Lab orders?,” she says, holding out her hand. “The doctor faxed them,” I say. “Ohhhhhh…kayyyyyyyy……” she says, the tone communicating, “If you’re stupid enough to believe THAT, then I don’t know WHAT to tell you.” Then she says, “I’ll take a look….” with a nearly-audible attitude of “…but there is no way they’ll be here, and don’t be mad at ME when they aren’t.” I’m sure she’d be sorry to find out she missed being right this morning. Perhaps the other technician can tell her all about it. “Some idiot thought the doctor would fax the lab orders,” he’ll say. She’ll shrug. What can be done about idiots? Nothing.
And this happened to be a very challenging morning to do this mission, necessitating a written, multi-columned chart to figure out which parent would go where, when, and with what car/child(ren). We barely managed it, with a minimum of panicked flapping, and then it turned out to be a completely wasted trip.
And it’s not just the wasted hour-long round-trip. It’s also all the phone calls and arrangements and calling-back-when-didn’t-hear-back and overnight-shipping-of-specialized-test-kits and leaving-unreturned-messages-on-machines and no-I-really-don’t-think-it-would-be-easier-to-just-drive-two-hours-into-the-big-horrifying-city-for-this it took to GET to that wasted hour-long trip.
I will have to wait until Monday to even do the next STEP of what needs to happen next, and by Monday we will be 11 days past the day it was supposed to be done. Meanwhile I’m picturing Edward needing new medicine and not getting it. I am further frustrated because everything has to be figured out on the PHONE, and people keep not calling me BACK, so then I have to call AGAIN. I deeply resent still having to use the phone in 2015, and yet I WILL do it if that is the ONLY way a company will allow itself to be communicated with—but if I MUST use the phone, by THEIR requirement, then it seems fair that they should ANSWER and/or CALL BACK. Better yet, but I know this is nothing but dreaming, they should call me if they are for some reason prevented from doing THE THING THEY SAID THEY’D DO.
This sounds terrible, and I am so sorry. I hope you were able to soothe your harried soul with coffee and/or chocolate.
When I was being diagnosed with A Thing, I had to find a lab that would draw my blood, centrifuge it, freeze it, and send it to another lab in Ottawa (a city about 4 hours away). I ended up walking from lab to lab in downtown Toronto SOBBING, and even though some of the people in the labs were sympathetic to me (SOME WERE NOT), no one could help me with my doctor’s extremely specific request and it was awful.
On the faxing issue — can you have the doctor fax the requisition AND bring a copy with you? That way if it’s not there you have it yourself! Or is this a thing that does not work with America’s health care system?
This is TERRIBLE. A half hour’s wasted trip is the sort of thing pre-kids me would think not that big a deal, and would think you are overreacting, but you are NOT it is a HUGE deal and it sounds like an even huger deal than I would think what with the spreadsheet schedule you had to work up.
One time Andrew and I made 50,000 arrangements to both be there for a medical procedure for Jack in Boston – he took the day off, we arranged for someone to stay with Baby Nora at a very early hour – only to arrive at the hospital and be told that the doctor ordered the wrong thing and the procedure we needed could only be done on Wednesdays, which that day was decidedly not. It is most certainly a huge deal.
“I deeply resent still having to use the phone in 2015” – God, isn’t that the truth? Why can’t absolutely everything be automated so we don’t have to deal with each other?!!! How lovely it would be to not have to hassle someone else to get something done? How lovely it would be to be able to remember something in the middle of the night and still be able to do it immediately? When is that world coming? Will our kids live in it? Our grandkids?
I could *FEEL* your stress in this post. I hope everything gets resolved soon!
Exactly, what that Kate ^ said.
I commiserate with and for you.
Have you ever wondered why the medical system is run less organized than an library? Ya know… It’s just life and death, yet they SUCK at all the organization! With you! Arg! Also, yeah libraries! Always easy, organized and accountable!
Oh, Swis.
I am going through something similar and have to watch my poor baby in pain for MONTHS just because of over-strict rules, human error, and some bafoon in an office who doesn’t care about being FAST for my kid who can’t sleep through the night for pain. I wish i could afford the procedure without this ridiculous insurance rigmarole.
I understand the random-capital ANGER that a too-complicated system can evoke. Good luck.
I am so sorry. The attitude of some medical staff is just almost insufferable. I know they often come by it after years of dealing with crazies, but still. There are SOME nice people out there who manage to remain nice after years of dealing with the dirty, dumb public. So it IS possible!
I remember crap like this all the times when I was pregnant and had to take certain compound-pharmacy-only type hormone supplements, and everything was told to me as though my obtaining a certain medicine by a certain time was URGENT and could literally save my pregnancy… but then after I was properly terrified and jumped through every hoop possible, everything would be all delayed and backed up and unavailable and everyone was very blase about it. Sent my blood pressure through the ROOF. Which, you know, is so good for the fetus!
Sorry you’re having to deal with all this unnecessary stress, much less poor Edward having to put his health on hold while the system gets its act together. I always request to hand carry the lab orders. Then it’s clear that they will be there when I am. So far, no doctor has ever even blinked when I asked.
There’s a similar problem, though, with a prescription needing to be phoned in. The pharmacy says they would be so happy to fill it right away but the doctor hasn’t faxed it, the doctor’s office snaps that they faxed it the minute they got the request. All I can do is study my navel while the two offices posture and preen and compete for the “most righteous” award. Grrrr.
I do carry my own lab orders if I’m coming from the doctor’s office, but frequently what happens is that the doctor gets back one batch of bloodwork, then phones me to tell me to take Edward for follow-up bloodwork. His office is 2 hours away in a big scary city, but we can use a lab local to us—which is good, but means the lab orders have to be faxed.
Ah, I didn’t put those 2 pieces together. That’s awful!
Oh argh argh argh. I wish so much I could fix this. I am so sorry, Swistle.
Oh for heavens sake. I am sorry.
Following up on an issue a couple of other commenters have raised, my recollection is that one or more of my fellow infertile friends got their own fax number (this can now be a virtual one, my hubby has one, I think, or did when he was settling his dad’s estate) and asked that the fax be sent to them as well. I think one of them (because I do think multiple ones did this) did not even identify the number as “their own,” or listed it as their GP’s or something that would, you know, look “more important” to an administrative staff person who had proven somewhat unreliable already.
When you are next in the big office (or wherever the problems are arising) can you ask the question, “What number should I call if [some stupid problem like this] happens again, so that I can connect immediately with a person?” There’s the “gethuman” website, but I doubt it has listings for (most) medical professionals.
I hope you’re able to get this all sorted soon, it does sound very frustrating and worrisome.
I am speechless with outrage on your behalf. It’s like they WANT to make every step of the process horrible. They can’t really want that, can they? And yet….
Oh SWISTLE. This is maddening! MADDENING! I feel very hand-flappy for you.
This is one of those occasions where I feel like it would be very satisfying to be able to ROAR–like a loud, movie-T-Rex roar. RRRROOOOAAARRRRRRRRR