More Waiting

“How can they just keep me waiting and waiting?” I asked Chuck yesterday. “That’s easy,” he replied, “They don’t have cancer.”

Fortunately, the waiting was rewarded at 1:10 pm yesterday. After Chuck and I had agreed that I would call them if we didn’t hear anything by 1:15! I have an appointment with a radiation oncologist on Tuesday (April 14th) and with a medical oncologist on Thursday (April 16th).

I called to schedule my surgery but of course had to leave a message. Just before 5pm I got a call back saying that earliest Dr. K could do my surgery was April 28th. Dr. Schauer didn’t have anything open before that date. So now I have to wait 18 more days before getting surgery. How is that possible? I wept with frustration. There is no one, NO ONE, available at ten minutes to five to talk to a distraught patient. I left a message for my Patient Navigator, Paula, and for the Social Worker at Willamette Valley Cancer Center. Both gone for the day. It is, after all, Friday and they have lives.

Do I settle for a lesser surgeon, assuming I can find one, who can do the surgery sooner or hang on in this awful suspension for eighteen more days? By Monday when I can actually do something about it (assuming that is even possible), it will be a mere sixteen days.

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