On Monday she had the initial consultation with her surgeon who basically told her what we already knew, that she was going to need a Colostomy. But this surgeon didn't look at anyone during the entire visit. He apparently was looking at something else while talking to them and this left my aunt, mother and sister very uncomfortable. My sister said he had no personality and even my comeback of "what do you expect from someone that works with assholes all day" couldn't lighten her mood toward him.
Tuesday was my turn for the doctor at 7:20 am and then off to radiation at 10:30 for auntie. I felt so cooped up that I had to get out Tuesday evening so I hit up a friend, did dinner and walked around Fry's for a bit.
Wednesday was hell at work, not only did I have to work late but I had to actually get indignant with the son of a patient. I'm not sure if it happens everywhere else but you're hard pressed to find a doctor here that sees you at the time of your appointment, and when you have a great doctor, you always have to wait. This guy had been calling for weeks trying to get the doctor to do something that would likely result in the death of his mother, all because he wasn't willing to listen to her or the doctor. We finally fit her in and because the doctor was behind he didn't want to wait. All the crap he gave us and he wasn't willing to let his mother even see the doctor. He was copping a major attitude with me and so finally I copped one right back telling him that all the other patients are willing to wait and him yelling at me wasn't going to get her put in front of anyone else, he made another appointment and left. Over an hour later when I led a patient into the exam room I was comforted by he and his mother pulling me aside and telling me that that man was totally wrong, totally a jerk and I handled it very well.
Thursday was radiation at 10:30 am and then the attorney at 1:00 pm. This was a very long day for auntie, she's getting more and more tired and wobbly. She pretty much fell asleep everytime we got in the car and at one point I turned around when we were at a stoplight to make sure she was still breathing. She's supposed to meet with the radiation oncologist every Wednesday after her session but she ended up not doing that Wednesday. Thursday, I asked the radiation nurse if she was supposed to meet with the doctor and she told me that the doctor was on vacation and she'd be meeting with the dr's associate after her session. She went on to say that my aunt didn't take her labs. I told her that she wasn't getting her blood drawn until Friday's appointment for her Chemo Oncologist and she got snippy saying that she needed weekly labs. Normally I would have said okay but since she got snippy I got snippy right back and said that NO one told us we had to have weekly labs and that at no time during the orientation with us did she mention that. I had made arrangements for the chemo oncologist's nurse to take her labs every other friday since she was going to see that doctor every two weeks. The radiation nurse hands me a slip and says, "you can take her to the lab every other week then" Mind you, if she was supposed to have labs every week, don't you think she'd have to have a lab slip to do that?. something we never got before that day. Michelle the chemo nurse witnessed the whole conversation. So I take the slip and go wait in the lobby with my mom, looking at the slip I noticed that nothing is checked, it's just a generic lab slip. I go back in to ask the radiation nurse if the lab is going to know what to draw since nothing is checked and she gets all sweet and says, "Michelle says that since she'll be here everyday, she'll do the labs every Friday". At that point I was like, THANK YOU MICHELLE. The attorney appointment goes well, but once all the paperwork was signed and completed she tells the lawyer "Now I can Die", not once, but three times in total. I'm so worried that since everything is now in order, she's going to give up. And I can see the fear in mom's eyes. Auntie says that she needs prescriptions refilled and that she has no more, I notice one bottle has no refills which means contacting the doctors office. I drop off auntie and mom, then head to the doctors office. I then find out that auntie's primary doctor has left the practice with no notification to her patients. What the hell? So now, we have to find a new primary, but the turn around is that a lady we all grew up with is working as the office manager and said she'd help us out. She'd get us in with one of the doctors in that location which is so much closer to where auntie lives. When I got back there was the argument between me and my aunt about her not living alone, especially when she's now had two doctors telling her she shouldn't.
Today, Michelle drew her blood before her session and apparently her hemoglobins are really low so they sent her straight to the hospital for some preliminary work and she has to have a blood transfusion tomorrow. I asked my boss about auntie's surgeon and he really didn't have much to say, not good, but not bad either. He's suggested his own doctor and one of the girls in the office I work at also mentions this doctor not knowing I've asked the boss. So I call our family friend that works at the primary doctors office and get her in next week so she can get checked out by her new primary doctor and they can refer her to a new surgeon. I've been told that the new surgeon is blunt, he'll tell it like it is, but that's not a bad thing, but they also say he's got a great sense of humor which is a great thing.
Just when I thought next week would be much easier, I jinxed myself. At least I won't be working late. I don't envy my sister who's taking her turn tomorrow for the blood transfusion. It's supposed to be a six hour procedure and she plans on working on the moving in with mom thing during that time.
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