So the stress test results say that Meme isn't 100% normal. We already knew that and it's not necessarily a bad thing. But poor Meme says "and so it all begins ... old age, tests, doctors, yuck".
She got a call from the doctor's office saying she needs another test, she's not 100%. Seems like if one test isn't normal, they do another test to actually find out what's wrong with you. Call me "just a dog", but I say why not just do that test straight out of the gate; save a lot of time, money and worry.
Of course she wants to know exactly what that means; just how much of a percent is she? But they won't talk over the phone. She's told she can come in the next day and discuss it with the nurse practitioner. I should explain that Meme's doctor became one of those fancy boutique kind that you pay an annual fee just to be able to talk to them. So now she's pushed off on the nurse.
But the nurse wouldn't get on the phone with her. Again they insist she must come to the office (i.e. become billable) and then they'll talk. Meme had a few choice words while all the time assuring the voice on the other end of the phone that she's not angry at her, just the situation. She's told she can either come in or see a cardiologist to talk about the results. She decides to go that route. She asked if it was any kind of emergency and she was assured it was not, she should go on vacation and enjoy ... plenty of time when she returns.
A couple weeks later her appointment was at 12:30. They called the day before to confirm and ask her to arrive 15 minutes early to fill in paperwork. Because she always plays by the rules, she was dutifully there 20 minutes early. The paperwork took maybe 2 minutes tops. There were several people in the waiting room, but there's more than one doctor so no worries. She settled in, there was a nice widescreen TV tuned to her favorite news, all was well.
There were 2 clipboards on the counter ... "Gastro" and "Cardio" and Meme came to realize there was one doctor for each clipboard. Another patient grumbled a bit about the wait, went up and looked at the Cardio list. He told his wife the last guy in (at 12:45) had an 11:15 appointment! He sat back down and they continued holding hands as they had been doing since Meme got there. Meme thought how sweet that was, but she's not nearly as patient as this nice couple.
About 10 minutes later Meme ventured up to the desk and asked the girl how long a wait did she think it might be, how late was the good doctor running? She clicked away on her keyboard, looked at the clipboard and then clicked again. She said "You're Heather, right?" Yes. And then ... "There are 4 patients ahead of you."
4 Patients??!!! Say WHAT??!! It's 1:15 now. One patient had been called since she arrived. Being a bit of a numbers whiz, she quickly does the math and realizes that at that rate she'd be there at least 2 more hours! And she hadn't even had lunch! They asked if she'd like to reschedule and she said yes, that would be a good idea.
You may already know that I believe everything happens for a reason. Well, I'm right. As she stood there hoping she wouldn't go into cardiac arrest in the meantime, Meme decided to confirm that the office received the stress test and blood work results her doctor had faxed over. Click, click, click .... "Ummmm ... I see we received your mammogram ".
HER MAMMOGRAM???!!!! Hello! Oar out of the water? One or two porch lights out? What gives here? Meme's in a Cardiologist's office for Pete's sake!!!!! I guess I don't need to tell you that Meme had a little conversation with her doctor's office the next day.
They told her that since she'd already filled out the paperwork and provided her license and insurance card, she only needed to arrive about 5 minutes early to which Meme responded "Well, you already owe me an hour soooo.......".
Postscript: Meme opened a letter from her insurance the other day. They were billed almost $7,000 for the stress test. This is after about $5,000 for the blood work. And she feels just fine!! We don't even want to think about what happens when she's actually sick. Maybe these tests will avoid that, maybe they won't. Of course her insurance didn't pay all that money and Meme will have to pay some, but $12,000 seems like an awful lot to me just because she mentioned maybe it was time for an EKG. That's how this snowball started rolling down this horrible hill.
Not even going to tell you about my health issues; that's a chapter for another day. But I feel fine so I'm not going anywhere near a doctor if I can help it
'Til next time ...
Molly
She got a call from the doctor's office saying she needs another test, she's not 100%. Seems like if one test isn't normal, they do another test to actually find out what's wrong with you. Call me "just a dog", but I say why not just do that test straight out of the gate; save a lot of time, money and worry.
Of course she wants to know exactly what that means; just how much of a percent is she? But they won't talk over the phone. She's told she can come in the next day and discuss it with the nurse practitioner. I should explain that Meme's doctor became one of those fancy boutique kind that you pay an annual fee just to be able to talk to them. So now she's pushed off on the nurse.
But the nurse wouldn't get on the phone with her. Again they insist she must come to the office (i.e. become billable) and then they'll talk. Meme had a few choice words while all the time assuring the voice on the other end of the phone that she's not angry at her, just the situation. She's told she can either come in or see a cardiologist to talk about the results. She decides to go that route. She asked if it was any kind of emergency and she was assured it was not, she should go on vacation and enjoy ... plenty of time when she returns.
A couple weeks later her appointment was at 12:30. They called the day before to confirm and ask her to arrive 15 minutes early to fill in paperwork. Because she always plays by the rules, she was dutifully there 20 minutes early. The paperwork took maybe 2 minutes tops. There were several people in the waiting room, but there's more than one doctor so no worries. She settled in, there was a nice widescreen TV tuned to her favorite news, all was well.
There were 2 clipboards on the counter ... "Gastro" and "Cardio" and Meme came to realize there was one doctor for each clipboard. Another patient grumbled a bit about the wait, went up and looked at the Cardio list. He told his wife the last guy in (at 12:45) had an 11:15 appointment! He sat back down and they continued holding hands as they had been doing since Meme got there. Meme thought how sweet that was, but she's not nearly as patient as this nice couple.
About 10 minutes later Meme ventured up to the desk and asked the girl how long a wait did she think it might be, how late was the good doctor running? She clicked away on her keyboard, looked at the clipboard and then clicked again. She said "You're Heather, right?" Yes. And then ... "There are 4 patients ahead of you."
4 Patients??!!! Say WHAT??!! It's 1:15 now. One patient had been called since she arrived. Being a bit of a numbers whiz, she quickly does the math and realizes that at that rate she'd be there at least 2 more hours! And she hadn't even had lunch! They asked if she'd like to reschedule and she said yes, that would be a good idea.
You may already know that I believe everything happens for a reason. Well, I'm right. As she stood there hoping she wouldn't go into cardiac arrest in the meantime, Meme decided to confirm that the office received the stress test and blood work results her doctor had faxed over. Click, click, click .... "Ummmm ... I see we received your mammogram ".
HER MAMMOGRAM???!!!! Hello! Oar out of the water? One or two porch lights out? What gives here? Meme's in a Cardiologist's office for Pete's sake!!!!! I guess I don't need to tell you that Meme had a little conversation with her doctor's office the next day.
They told her that since she'd already filled out the paperwork and provided her license and insurance card, she only needed to arrive about 5 minutes early to which Meme responded "Well, you already owe me an hour soooo.......".
Postscript: Meme opened a letter from her insurance the other day. They were billed almost $7,000 for the stress test. This is after about $5,000 for the blood work. And she feels just fine!! We don't even want to think about what happens when she's actually sick. Maybe these tests will avoid that, maybe they won't. Of course her insurance didn't pay all that money and Meme will have to pay some, but $12,000 seems like an awful lot to me just because she mentioned maybe it was time for an EKG. That's how this snowball started rolling down this horrible hill.
Not even going to tell you about my health issues; that's a chapter for another day. But I feel fine so I'm not going anywhere near a doctor if I can help it
'Til next time ...
Molly
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