I Caused a Minor Uproar at the Hospital

This will be just a breast cancer update. I thought I had all of the arrangements made to have surgery on the 21st. As I may have mentioned before, I don't live in the same city as the hospital where I'll be treated. I also have two dogs, one of which is diabetic and very, very moody. I began to get concerned this week that I'd heard nothing from them and the 21st is rapidly approaching. I have to have some lead time to make arrangements for everyone (especially the dogs). What to do?

I searched the website for clues as to the correct person to call. Silly me. No luck. I thought about calling Leslie, my original bcl, but I have a very significant dread of being a pest. I determined that I'd just have to figure it out for myself. That's a very comfortable conclusion that I frequenly come to in any number of situations. Having made that decision, I went back to the website with a renewed sense of purpose.

I found a section named "Information." That seemed as good a place as any to begin. I commented that I had a surgery date set, but no one had contacted me about it. The brochure they send you when you become a patient says that you will need to come at least a couple of days prior to surgery so that they can perform some tests. I told them that I need to have some time to set up accommodations for everyone. I thanked them for their help.

I finished that email at around 10:15. By the time I got home for lunch at 11:00, Leslie left a message on my home answering machine. In a testy tone of voice, she told me that she had received a copy of the email I sent to the Information folks. She pointed out that she had provided me with a callback number in case I had any questions.

When I got back to work, she had left the same message on my voice mail. Oh dear. I have once again caused an uproar. My first thought was that I had inadvertently created problems for Leslie by making her supervisors believe she hadn't done her job well. Aside from coughing frequently in my ear, Leslie has been very helpful, so I was anxious to correct my mistake. I called Leslie and began apologizing profusely. I offered to send additional apologetic emails to her supervisors. That was unnecessary, she said.

Leslie then informed me that the date I believed to be the surgery date is really just a consultation date. We will explore treatment options. Oh great. I have no idea if this is also the preliminary event they mention in their brochure that can last for several days. I don't even really care at this point. I would just like to do something. Today is not a good day. I've been consuming chocolate to help with mood elevation. I probably need to go get some now.