Are you feeling good today? :)
Took a week to get a message to the Chinese physician it was time to order them, per instructions from his superior.
Apparently he did not know how to dial my cell phone, and the secretary finally got through, asking for him when I'd like them drawn. I indicated today.
The Lab opens at 0730 and I arrived at 0655 - the very first on the list!!
She finally got set up and called me in - no lab orders on list. Hmmmmm....
Directed to go to the 4th Floor Desk and have them print out the orders on their computer for me, I did so. Have to put your ID Card in box and wait your turn, but I sashayed over to one of the fellows who knows me well to ask how he was - casually mentioned My Mission, and he gallantly whipped up my info on his computer to help me. DOUBLE HMMMMMMM....
The said Chinese physician had failed to enter the order in the computer.
"Go to 5th Floor to see the Nephrology Secretary for help." She opens at 0830.
Of course she was late, and I knew Dr. Z. was not at the VA on Tuesday to enter the order in the computer even if she paged him.
Even if he were, I would by then be about the 107th one in line to be helped!
I left word for her to call me at home after setting up ANOTHER DATE for the draw....
Now not a happy camper...:>(
She called at noon to apologize, and I assured her I understood it was not her fault, and to let me know what was set up after she reaches him.
The good news is he leaves the end of June to go to private practice - hooray!
Would you believe in one of our first conversations when I mentioned being a Korean Veteran, he declared, "Oh, yes - when SOUTH Korea invaded NORTH Korea!" and I quelled the seething long enough to say pointedly we will change the subject.
He spent 8 years in training in Beijing...pointless to try to reeducate him. I endured his tenure, his supervisor the private teaching physician at The Medical College of Georgia who treated me for 5 years! She is top notch and treats me like her own mother, so I always had recourse when he fouled up, which he did before.
Dubya, it really makes a difference when prescriptions are $7 per 30-day supply. In 1999 our monthly Rx bill (not counting mandatory aspirin, vitamins, iron, etc.) at $400 per month; none for illness or accident. That was when I transitioned to the VA facility that is an adjunct of MCG anyway.
I had been unable to purchase the emergency glucagon kits for severe insulin reactions, the outside price leaping from $15 to $45 to $60 for EACH in 1998. Couldn't afford to have them to save my life - literally.
When the physician at VA processed me in, I gave him a printout of my meds and he entered them in the computer. When he got to the one for the glucagon kit, I almost burst into tears - he entered fill each Rx with (5) of them; $300 or more outside!! Lord knows the cost now, and I do not stockpile them, if not needed, but it is a blessing.