Well, they called back, but it was the receptionist and she had no idea what was going on. She called to tell me that my results weren't in yet. She was all rushy until I said, I know, I called out to the lab in Utah. They told me Dr Pallas hasn't sent in the letter of medical necessity yet and that makes my kit incomplete and they don't accept incomplete kits. She immediately put me on hold to go "check on something". She comes back and says, Shannon is gone home and Dr Pallas isn't available (even though the office is closed), so I will get some answers for you and call you back. I then told her I have an appt with a surgeon on Thursday and I really needed to have these results back because they were going to be my deciding factor between a lumpectomy and a mastectomy (white lie) and now I feel it's a wasted appt since I don't know whether I'm predisposed to the cancer gene so can't make that decision for another month now. Told her the lab told me I could have had my results last week and would have been all set for my surgeon appt but now I'm going with no answers. Also told her that I've been sitting here with cancer for 2 months and I'm getting nowhere with dr appts (crying at this point out of frustration) and I'm getting really sick of all the mistakes which result in delays of my recovery. She was VERY apologetic and said she'd call me as soon as she found something out. It's not her fault, I know, and she's probably wishing she wouldn't have called me and let Shannon call, who was supposed to be calling me, but too late now. She got the ear full. She definitely wasn't expecting me to say I called the lab myself but I'm sick of depending on these dr offices and getting nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. I've never heard of someone being diagnosed with cancer and left sitting for 2 months!
As for Shannon, for someone who showed so much compassion when I was at the office getting my blood drawn, she sure isn't very compassionate when it comes down to it. the lab faxed her several times trying to tell her they needed my letter of medical necessity and she never responded. They called her and she said she'd ask the dr for it and has never gotten back to them. I called her twice yesterday and she never called me back. the last time I called the receptionist said she was with Dr Pallas going over records and she would give her my message which was, I need her to call me back TODAY. Nope, never called. Went home knowing I NEEDED a call from her. I thought once the receptionist told her I was calling maybe it would jog her memory and since she was with the dr she would say, oh yeah, we need that letter for her. But nope, she just went home, not even telling the receptionist what was going on. When this is all said and done and I am recovered, there will be lots of people getting letters of their poor professional and personal skills. I'm really sick of being pushed aside. I know there are people out there with a lot worse cases than me, that need much more urgent care than I do, but I still have cancer. I still need surgery. I still need to be cured. I would like to get rid of it before I turn into one of those cases that need urgent care!
So I'm going to my appt with the surgeon on Thursday, telling him what has happened to me and telling him I want the bilateral mastectomy asap, I want to get this over with and I don't want to go the lumpectomy/radiation/hormone route. I'm sure Dr Pallas' office put me on the back burner because of the decision I've made. After all, it makes no money for them since I won't be needing their services of radiation and hormone therapy. Thanks for your compassion Dr Pallas.
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