This has been way more phone calls than radiation and lumpectomy combined! Thank Heaven I'm supposedly cured. If I were working, I'd get fired for being on the phone.
"You need an order that says Diagnostic. If there's a code it will probably be OK. No you don't You need an order that says breast cancer. No, you don't because there's a code on your order. If you don't have it, you'll get a regular screening mammogram and the results won't be ready 2 days later when you see the doctor."
How is it that no one in the oncologist's office has never experienced these conflicting hospital rules.
This is after three non-returned calls from the hospital, just to get even a tentative appointment! (Turns out the local appointments person had been gone for a week. Don't know what happened after she got back, but it didn't happen for me.)
If I don't hear by the end of the day, I will email an Oncology Nurse Navigator I've met. See if she can straighten this out so I can make my other medical appointments and have a life off the phone. PS Nurse navigator did not reply to e-mail.
Finally the only hospital person whose name I know assured me that I'm down now for the correct mammo based on the code. She is always patient; mentioned without scolding me that some of the women in the breast center are new. Also, out of a clear blue sky, she said I'm on diagnostic mammos for 2 years. Funny no doctor ever mentioned that to me. . .
Please let me believe the mammo tech will not be a new one. I admit I'm lucky that they have this new campus in my area.
I have to learn to ask every person on the phone: "Please tell me your name." Then write it down. Maybe that will encourage them to go and ask someone who knows.
The Bottom Line: It's up to me to check firmly once more before she gets hold of my breast that I need the diagnostic mammo! My responsibility.
I wish you health, and a friend at the hospital.
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