OK, time for that update I have mentioned a couple of times. By Monday we had no responses. My wife was getting more and more anxious, and depressed. She sent several messages to her local gastro, literally begging for help. No response, other than a Saturday response saying "I know you are worried, but these things take time, and I am on vacation next week."
I got home very late Monday night, having had a hellish work day (see previous post) to find my wife looking very distraught, and on the verge of tears. As we looked at what happened and what wasn't happening, we decided to ask the referring doctor to make another referral, this time to a doc in Portland.
While composing the message, her phone rings, with a Boston area code showing. It is 10:05 pm, and it is the specialist calling! He was still at the hospital, and was looking over my wife's file. He needed more information, and decided rather than go through all the steps of trying to explain to his assistant what he wanted, and then hoping the assistant would correctly convey the information to my wife's provider and get an appropriate and accurate and timely response, he decided to go straight to the source!
We had a very productive 15 minute call, and we we know that we made the right decision. This doc is empathetic, and put my wife at ease. Surgery may happen, but more info is needed.
What is really cool is that the team is about 30 people, and all will look at her file. Given technology, they want access to all the original scans, not the interpretive reports.
So our first team meeting is next Friday, a telemed conference call, and we will get moving. The best news was that at this time, given the reports he has read, the surgeon does not believe that my wife needs to be rushed into surgery.
Things are much lighter now, still with some anxiety, but no longer feel like impending doom is at the door.
I'll update as appropriate, and thanks for all the support expressed to us!
I got home very late Monday night, having had a hellish work day (see previous post) to find my wife looking very distraught, and on the verge of tears. As we looked at what happened and what wasn't happening, we decided to ask the referring doctor to make another referral, this time to a doc in Portland.
While composing the message, her phone rings, with a Boston area code showing. It is 10:05 pm, and it is the specialist calling! He was still at the hospital, and was looking over my wife's file. He needed more information, and decided rather than go through all the steps of trying to explain to his assistant what he wanted, and then hoping the assistant would correctly convey the information to my wife's provider and get an appropriate and accurate and timely response, he decided to go straight to the source!
We had a very productive 15 minute call, and we we know that we made the right decision. This doc is empathetic, and put my wife at ease. Surgery may happen, but more info is needed.
What is really cool is that the team is about 30 people, and all will look at her file. Given technology, they want access to all the original scans, not the interpretive reports.
So our first team meeting is next Friday, a telemed conference call, and we will get moving. The best news was that at this time, given the reports he has read, the surgeon does not believe that my wife needs to be rushed into surgery.
Things are much lighter now, still with some anxiety, but no longer feel like impending doom is at the door.
I'll update as appropriate, and thanks for all the support expressed to us!
- Eric
Put your message in a modem,
And throw it in the Cyber Sea
--Rush, "Virtuality"
Overloader of brushes, Overlander fanboy, Schickhead, and a GEM in the rough!
Put your message in a modem,
And throw it in the Cyber Sea
--Rush, "Virtuality"
Overloader of brushes, Overlander fanboy, Schickhead, and a GEM in the rough!