These Moments Sponsored by DQ

The thing people need to know about me is this: I'm an over reactor, a true yet unintentional drama queen (a DQ). If you've ever seen the Steve Martin remake of the Father of the Bride, you might remember Steve Martin's character telling his future son-in-law that his fiancee is an over reactor and comes from a long line of over reactors. That's me. And someday, my father will probably have to have that conversation with some guy on my behalf. I don't usually mean to overreact, it just seems to happen. Knowing this, you probably won't be surprised when I tell you this surgical process is stressing me out because everything isn't going perfectly and there have been a few opportunities to flip out.

JAN 19, 2010
The first one came just hours after my last post when my appointment with the cardiologist, the one that's not technically covered by my insurance, was scheduled. I did my due diligence on this one (and everything else that's relates to insurance) and got approval in writing from the insurance company to see this specialist. So the time comes, and I show up exactly 11 minutes before my appointment.
[SIDEBAR: Being 10-13 minutes early for a new patient appointment is the exact right amount of time to be early. You need at least 10 minutes to fill out the paperwork, handle the co-pay and have copies of your ID and insurance cards made. You don't want to be more than 13 minutes early because then you look a little like you WANT to be at this appointment. Even if you do WANT to be at the appointment you don't want to APPEAR like you want to be at this appointment, it gives the doctors & their support staffs too much power over you. Its the same way you never take the first option when scheduling your next appointment. You have to show them you're not a pushover sometimes or they will have you by the balls for the entirety of your professional relationship.]
Anyway, so I'm at this clinic, ready (but not eager) get this appointment over with. I don't know why, but the feeling in my gut is that if I'm going to fail any of these consults, its going to be the heart one. Don't ask why I feel that way, I just do. As I'm checking in, the nice receptionist informs me that there is NO cardiologist at that location on Tuesdays. Oh snap! I feel an overreaction coming on. Not only is there no cardiologist in the building on Tuesdays, the receptionist can't look me up as a patient because they don't do their own scheduling. So I called the main number and was told that my appointment was for FEBRUARY 19, not January 19. Even 10 days later, I'm still feeling myself getting worked up for this. I spoke very sternly with that receptionist. My contention was (and still is) that I was truly planning on being through my consults by Feb 1 in hopes of having surgery scheduled by the end of that month and therefore would not have accepted an appointment in the middle of February. After a few minutes of my raised voice, I had pretty much battered up the receptionist, so she transferred me to her boss. I gave her the same riot act. I admit I was overreacting and she did try to reschedule me for later in the week, but my response was, "If I can't trust your office to handle appointments, how can I trust your office with handling my heart?" Yes, its a DQ moment, but still a valid question. I canceled with them all together and ended up rescheduling with a cardiologist I knew was in my network.

JAN 20, 2010
My heart rate and blood pressure got about a day or so to calm down when I got the memo from my company: "Our Insurance Carrier is Changing Effective 2/1." What?!? Oh, hell no. You're going to inform me of an insurance change 11 days out? I was aware of the possibility of changing carriers, but I never would have imagined that it would happen so quickly. That DQ moment was a pretty private one, but did include some door slamming and a small lake-full of tears. Basically, all the work that I had put into this surgery could have potentially been for nothing. I don't even know if the new carrier covers bariatric surgery. And I won't know until the 2nd or 3rd week in Feb. So again, I'm left waiting for weight loss.

(The next posts are on my psych consult, my chest xray and pulmonology appt, and my cardiology appt that I actually got into see. Can anybody say McDreamy?)