The Waiting Game

I'm still waiting to hear when my next appointments, and of course the surgery, will be. After talking to my main neurosurgeon's secretary on Thursday and Friday of last week, I was under the impression that someone would be calling me from the offices of both the other neurosurgeon and the otolaryngologist today. When I hadn't heard from anyone by 2pm, we checked the phone messages, thinking maybe we missed the calls. There weren't any messages from those two doctors offices, but there was a message (from Thursday - oops!) from the ER hospital to call their PA back.

I called and spoke with the PA on call and he said he wasn't completely sure why the first PA wanted to talk to me, but he guesses it's because my lyme titer came back positive by ELISA. They did a Western Blot, though, and that was negative. Anyway, they're going to fax the results to my primary care and maybe I'll get some more antibiotics (though I'm thinking not since the more specific test was negative). Woohoo! I just finished that week of keflex. :/

The PA also reviewed the MRI report and asked if I had been told about the mass. I wondered if that maybe scared him a little, thinking that maybe I didn't know and he would have to be the one to tell me on the phone. I should have seen what his reaction would have been if I said "I have a what in the who now?" :)

I looked the phone numbers for the other two doctors. Left a message with the otolaryngologist's office. When I spoke with the secretary at the other neurosurgeon's office I told her who I was and that I thought someone was going to be calling me for an appointment with that doctor, but I wasn't completely sure. She got my file and said I was right and "We'll be talking to the doctor in a few minutes and we'll see when he can fit you in." That was almost two hours ago so I guess I'll probably hear from them tomorrow... ...or when I call them back.

I guess I'm not in particular hurry to be operated on, but it would be nice to know where things stand. Plus, this whole not driving and not working thing kind of blows.

In the meantime, while the appointments are figuring themselves out (or not), most of the things on my end have been tied up. We went last week to the lawyer's to get advance directives and power of attorneys for each of us, and to write a will. Things we've been meaning to do for awhile, so what better time than now? I figure the more prepared we are the less likely we are to need it, right? The whole advance directive thing reminded me of the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer wants Elaine to be his living will executor. Remember that one?

I also faxed my family medical leave paperwork to Dr Q's office and got my short term disability stuff set up. The only potential problem is that I haven't been at my job for 6 months yet. I need 6 months under my belt before they will allow me to have short term disability. Which is especially lame because I currently have 5 months, and the first 29 days of disability are "on me" anyway. However, I was told on hiring that my years of service would roll over to the new hospital since my previous 2+ years were at a hospital in the same system. So I should be okay. The person that manages these things in HR is verifying it all and will get back to me if I need to submit more paperwork.

I guess the more sick you are, the more stress and paperwork there is?

And now to go back to twiddling my thumbs...

Edit To Add - Just got a call back. My visit with the other neurosurgeon will be Thursday the 3rd. I guess that means no surgery on my birthday, so that's good!