Now, I don't know about you, but Radiologists are just supposed to look at pictures of xrays, CTscans, etc... right? I mean, they don't even take the pictures themselves, they just look at the pictures the tech takes. Keeping this in mind I was a little freaked out when they said a Radiologist was going to be cutting into my Jugular! Radiologist look at pictures, Surgeon's cut, right?... No! It's called Special Procedures. Yipes! What will they think of next? Housekeeping doing Vital Signs?!
Anyway... My appt is at 8:00 am. They tell me to be there by 6:30 am for labs etc... By 7:30 am I am ready to go lying on a gurney trying to stay awake talking to my husband. The Radiologist is nowhere to be found. They have paged him 3 times and emailed him twice. Finally at 8:15 am Radio #2 comes in to go over the procedure, sign the paperwork and show me what the Medi-Port looks like (surprisingly, it looks like a Star Trek communicator, One to beam up Scotty!).
They finally wheel me into the room at 8:45. Radio #2 said they prefer to put the port on the right side and the neck wound won't matter. Well at 9:10 Radio #1 finally shows up! He says he doesn't come in until 9:00. Well excuse me! Shouldn't you not schedule procedures for times you don't plan on being there?!?!? Anyways...
I'm all hooked up and ready to go when Radio #1 says he doesn't want to do the right side, so they move all of the monitors to the left. Then he decides he'll look at my CT's and notices there are enlarged nodes on the left and he will do it on the right. Move the equipment again! Now we're set. The tech gets me all scrubbed up and disinfected when low and behold the Radio changes his mind AGAIN!!! Now they move everything so he can use the left side. We get all scrubbed up again for the left side and he decides I now need another IV in the left hand (I already had one in the right). A cafeteria lady could have stuck me better than this tech that was there OOOWWWW! The port is installed in front of a rib where my chest wall ends and the breast tissue starts. So it kinda floats on top of my boob. Interesting.
Finally, at 10:35 we get started. Remember, it was supposed to start at 8:00 and be done by 9:30. This whole time my husband is pacing the waiting room hearing Code Blues and Stat pages for Doctors really getting worried. No one at the reception desk can tell him anything!
By 12:00 I am back in the waiting room to wait again for a chest Xray to check placement. The Xray gets done at 12:30 pm. I should be home in a Vicodin induced euphoria by now! I tell my husband to hand me my clothes and am so fed up by this point I tell him if the films aren't read by 1:00, I'm leaving AMA. They'll call me if there's a problem. At 12:55 they announce I'm fine and can leave!!
Now I know this is a long entry. My husband and I have a really positive attitude and pretty much nothing bothers us. BUT, this day just pushed us too far.
