2002-04-29 - 9:49 a.m.

Baby Steps, Part II

So Redwood visited my last Sunday (not yesterday, but the Sunday before) only for a few hours, but something was wrong with my digestive system so I spent about 1/5 of that time sitting on the pot. The funny thing I�ve discovered is peeing and other things actually make it more comfortable. I think it has to do with pressure inside.

I was still in serious pain and would not have gone to work the following day, if I didn�t need Redwood to drive me to the specialist, an urologist, on Monday. Work was terrible Monday. I was both in pain and experiencing temperature fluctuations. Fortunately I brought along my wool coat, and damnit, if it isn�t just nothing more than a black blankie with arm holes, it is certainly something even better. I don�t know why, but I love my coat. It is warm, and being a small guy I�m usually freezing cold � especially if I can�t bounce around. Note to everybody: should you find me in pain, find my blankie� er wool coat, it helps.

I was trying to avoid hitting the codeine pills (which I had used that weekend for the pain), because I wanted the urologist to see the state I really am in. When 3 PM hit, Redwood took vacation / sick leave as well to drive me to the hospital.

Kaiser, I hate them and will be leaving when I get back from Europe. Anyway, when we got there, I handed my ID card to the woman working the register and waited. She looked at the card and then told me that my appointment was May 22nd, not April 22nd.

OK, backstory: a week before this the pain was intense. At times it is so hard I was crying at work. Unless you�ve felt this pain it is hard to describe it to women in terms they can understand. Men at first think it is like being racked. It is so much worse than that. There is a big difference between your body sucking up a testicle than having one smashed. Anyway, I had called a week before this to see if I could get in earlier. My general practice Kaiser doctor�s nurse told me I had to work it out with urology. So I phoned and explained that I was in considerable pain and would like the appointment I had been waiting a month for to be moved to the next available spot. The woman told me that before my Wednesday April 24th appointment that there was an opening on Monday the 22nd. OK, two days sounded good. I gave up my Wednesday spot for the Monday spot.

So when I was told that instead of moving me forward two days they pushed me back another month, I was in shock. As I�ve said about the pain, you don�t understand how the mind works when it is under 24 hour pain for over 60 days. There is a part of you that really looks forward to events and you actually get an emotional / psychological attachment to these events. I was hoping the urologist could first tell me if I had minor torsion, if I could still bear children, if I would have loss in mass, and most importantly how much longer I would have to endure this pain. But the woman only said, �Dude, I�m sorry. We must have messed up.�

By this time I was screaming at her, �I�m sorry, but that is an incredible fuck up on your part! Who would be in pain, phone in and say, �I�m in serious pain, could you move my appointment back another month?�� That woman should be inflicted with my pain for a month. There are fuck ups, and that is fine, but when she said I�d have to wait until May my jaw dropped. I asked her to get me in later that day. She walked around the corner and then said she couldn�t, but she did get me in again on Wednesday. The original day of my appointment.

Anyway, what she did was totally unprofessional. I didn�t tell her that she was an idiot, fucker, or moron. I said what she did was a �fuck up� and messing up like that was �moronic�. I guess that is close. But I was in emotional and physical pain. When I saw she didn�t give a fuck about me, I walked into the hallway and cried.

I�ll soon be writing a letter of complaint to Kaiser and I will be leaving them. This is the second mess up (they schedule my ultrasound and never told me, but insisted I was there a month earlier). I�m sorry, but the Sacramento Kaiser has some really insensitive people working scheduling. You should not have to wait a month to see a specialist when your testicles hurt so much, nor should you expect somebody to push your appointment back when you specifically ask for them to move it forward. And when they screw up, they should do ultimate what they tell me, �Grin and bear it, suck it up, and fix your mistake.�

In a word, I now simply hate Kaiser. The doctors might care about patients, as well as the nurses. In fact, there are probably some wonderful people there. But the few that aren�t, should be fired. They endanger the health of every patient, and I�m not just an account number.

More later �

LISTENING TO: Depeche Mode Black Celebration

-=-

<< previous - next >>