Thursday, February 27, 2014

Year Three, Week Forty-Nine - The Results of Nothing......

Last weeks' test results are in.  They've been in for  few days, actually, but reacting to them has taken a few days.  "Call Saturday" was what I was instructed.  The cultures were taken Wednesday evening, and likely did not hit the lab until Thursday morning.  It takes about 24 hours for the germs to grow, and another day to identify those that do, so it was a realistic piece of advice. I called at about 2 PM.  I was put on hold for about half an hour.  The staff member who took my message was pretty insistent that I give her a number that I would be sitting RIGHT NEXT TO while I waited for the return call.  Well, the cell's in my pocket - can't get much more 'right next to' than that!  At about 6PM the cell rang.  I was, of course, driving, so it went to voice mail.  I called back ten minutes later, went on hold for 15 minutes and got a very excitable nurse who told me that the cultures were 'negative.'  I've seen 'negative' mean 'your kid won't die of this unless they've had a kidney transplant or something' so I explained to her that my kid HAS had a kidney transplant and that I....no, wait...let me finish......dammit!  Back on hold because she freaked out and needs to run to ask the doctor.  Ugh.

Fifteen MORE minutes later, she comes back and very, very rapidly begins to explain that the doctor has now panicked and wants me to do......STOP!  Please, just....STOP!  I'm not a fan of running over somebody who thinks they have something of critical importance to tell you.  But I'm out of patience, and I'm certainly out of time for this nonsense, so I really almost had to tell her sit down and shut up and LISTEN!   I explained who I am and that I'm a doctor.  I explain that this isn't my first damn rodeo and I know better than anybody at any walk-in will EVER know what to do about any lab results they give me but I need her to READ ME THE REPORT verbatim so I can make some decisions.  Ah, well, then, why didn't you just say so? 

She reads the reports:  The urine culture really is negative.  And the 'final' throat culture report is too.  Goody - now all I need to do is call the team on Monday and ask, what next. 

Sunday morning I put my cell on vibrate for church and then forget about it.  Monday I find the phone and discover that the walk-in called Sunday evening to 'give me Babygirl's lab reports.'  Huh?  I have them, already, but I call anyway.  Just in case.  And......she has strep.  I'm guessing that 'final report' has some other meaning that I don't know about.  It's that ridiculous Group G strep that doesn't make anybody sick except Babygirl.  They'll call in an antibiotic tonight.  By 8:30 CVS hasn't sent me a text, so I call, and nothing has been phoned in yet.  I stop by after work on Tuesday - no prescription. 

My reaction was a testament to my overall emotional fragility.  I sobbed all the way home.  I called the walk-in, refused the option to 'hold for a moment' and insisted on speaking to a nurse. NOW.  She told me that the prescription had been phoned in at 6 yesterday.  Where did I want this to go?  Our pharmacy closes at 6, so if you do it now, there.  If not, CVS.  Hubby went to our pharmacy - no phone in.  He arrived home at 6:05, so he left the pharmacy seconds before it closed.  I called the walk-in AGAIN.  They insist that they called it to our pharmacy but they'll re-call it to CVS.  I sobbed on Hubby's shoulder so long I think he had to change his shirt.  I went to CVS, where they told me that our insurance wouldn't cover the prescription because our other pharmacy had already filled it and billed for it - what?  When??

I told them that I didn't care if the prescription was $1000, I would pay cash, delay a mortgage payment and straighten it out later but PLEASE can I have her medicine??? 

In our neighborhood, people acting crazy at a pharmacy are probably a dime a dozen but I won the prize that night.  The prescription was $43.  I was exhausted.

Babygirl's had 3 doses of it so far and still looks pretty rough.  We'll see, I guess.

DeeDee

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