Light up And let go

My echo stress test was scheduled for this morning.

Except it wasn’t.

They kept me waiting in the waiting room for half an hour, while more and more people kept arriving and going back. Finally, the tech called my name. She took me back, and introduced me to another lady who does the ultrasounds, but then said (a little too innocently) “But you’re not having one of those today, right?”. Of course, my face clearly indicated that I was, in fact, supposed to have an ultrasound today. She then said, “Well, this just says you’re supposed to have a treadmill test.” I clarified that I was supposed to have a treadmill test but that it was supposed to be an ECHO, and not an EKG. She said (I shit you not), “Well, these orders are written wrong. I mean, I don’t blame Dr. Joyce- she’s an oncologist, not a cardiologist, so it’s not surprising that she’d get it wrong…”

-This right here, kids, is where I started to realize that something was wrong, and that it might not have anything to do with me, but I was going to pay for it.-

I said that the oncologist approved the orders, but that the nurse who wrote them was, in fact, a cardiology nurse and that she very specifically told me I needed an ECHO stress test because I’ve already had 2 conflicting EKG’s 

The tech said that she knew I had a previously indeterminate EKG, which is why she talked to the doctor before I came in (I’m sorry, you did WHAT now??! So you knew this was wrong and let me come in and let me wait and never mentioned it to me or contacted the ordering doctor?! ) and he said another EKG was the only option, based on the order that was written.

The tech said she could give me the EKG but she’d hate to “make me walk twice” (bitch, I will walk HOME if you’ll just give me the damned test!!) but she would have to talk to Dr. Joyce to clarify the orders and have me come back another day. She could not/would not do the test I was there for, and she sent me home.

There is no reason that they couldn’t have called Dr. Joyce right then, if not before I arrived. I called her nurse from the parking lot! I have her cell phone number- don’t they?! They could have reached her but chose not to, I assume to make some sort of point. It seems pretty clear that there is drama between oncology and cardiology, but that’s not my fault or problem and it’s ridiculous that patients would have to pay the price.

Dr. Joyce’s office was going to contact cardiology and call me back, but nearly 3 hours later I’m still waiting. I have other appointments every, single day next week, so I don’t even know how I’m going to work it in, now.

Meanwhile… Dr. Liu’s office tried to schedule my port placement surgery for 1/11, but Brant was unable to take me up there that day and now they won’t reschedule until my oncologist calls them with my chemo start date. My “chemo start date” is supposed to simply be after I get my Echo results and my port placed. I have no set “start date, it’s completely contingent on those other things. So, now I’m in limbo with that, too. Dr. Liu’s scheduler is refusing to schedule.

 Dr. Joyce thought  I’d be starting chemo by mid-January, but that will not be the case, now. This is all just going to keep dragging on forever. From SIRA refusing my imaging a year ago, to the CT induced sickness, to the missing EKG results to the lost mammaprint results, and now all of this…. I’m really starting to feel like every step contains an obstacle that’s determined to make my stage 1 cancer stage 4.